






















HISTORY 


) 

'■£ 1 ’ 

OF 


ENGLAND, 


POLITICAL, MILITARY, AND SOCIAL, 


\ 


FROM THE 


EARLIEST TIMES TO THE PRESENT. 


BY 

BENSON J. LOSSING, 

AUTHOR OF “riOTORIAL FIELD-BOOK OF THE REVOLUTION AND WAR OF 1S12,” 
“HISTORY OF THE GREAT CIVIL WAR,” “HISTORY OF THE UNITED 
STATES,” “LIFE OF WASHINGTON,” 

ETC., ETC., ETC, 



NEW YORK: 

G. P. PUTNAM & SONS, 

ASSOCIATION BUILDING. 


1871 . 











Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1S71, 
BY G. P. PUTNAM & SONS, 

In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 


,) Cl 3 

P 0* 

. i 0 0 


THE NEW YORK PRINTING COMPANY, 

205, 207, 209, 211, and 213 East Twelfth Street 




'Zo u z' 


PEE FAC E. 







IN the work of preparing this volume, I claim no larger share of 
merit than that which justly belongs to a careful compiler of facts 
from the best and most recent sources of information. 

I have given, within as small a Bpace as a clear presentation would 
allow, a narrative of the most important events in the history of the 
civil and military transactions of England, from the time of its occu¬ 
pation by the ancient Britons and Gauls until now; also, an account 
of the progress of the people in the organization of government, the 
establishment of laws, the practical assertion of popular liberty, the 
practice of useful occupations, which give strength and beauty to so¬ 
ciety and the State; the modes of dress, living, and recreations; and 
the cultivation of science, literature, and the fine arts ; by all of 
which the reader may comprehend the growth and philosophy of 
that civilization and power which distinguish the British Empire 
to-day. 

This volume is specially intended for the use of students of the 
History of England in families and schools. It is divided into eras, 
which mark important changes in the civil, political, and social con¬ 
dition of the country; and is subdivided into convenient chapters 
and sections, in a manner to combine the advanteiges of a text-book 
with those of an attractive story of the life of a great nation. 

For the purpose of assisting the reader and the student in obtain¬ 
ing a clear understanding of the unity of events, remote and near, 
which make up the History of England, a running concordance is in¬ 
troduced in the form of marginal references, by which the relations 
of a fact noticed in any portion of the work to another fact already 



iv 


PREFACE. 


mentioned is indicated, and the nature of that relation may be in 
stantly observed. This will be found eminently useful, not only 
as forming a continuous chain of connection, but as a means for 
saving a great amount of time that might be spent in searching for 
such connection. 


The Ridge, Dover Plains, N. Y. 
August, 1871. 


B. J. L. 


CONTENTS. 


BOOK 1 . 

INTRODUCTION. 

TAOE 

Chapter I. The British Islands and their Inhabitants . 1 

> 

BOOK n. 

The Roman Invasion and Rule. [From b.c. 55 to a.d. 410.] 

I. Civil and Military Transactions. 7 

II. Geographical and Political Divisions... 20 

T IT. Society before the Saxon Invasion. 24 

BOOK III. 

The Saxon Era. [From the 5th to the 11th Century. 

I. The Early Invaders from the North. 27 

II. The Rise and History of the Heptarchy. [From the 5th 
to the 9th Century.] 

III. Reign of Egbert [a.d. 800 to 837]. 40 

IV. Reign of Ethelwulf [a.d. 837 to 858]. 43 

V. Reign of Ethelbald and Ethelbert [a.d. 858 to 866].... 44 

VI. Reign of Ethelred [a.d. 866 to 871]. 45 

VII. Reign of Alfred [a. d. 871 to 901]. * . 46 

VIII. Reign of Edward the Elder [a.d. 901 to 925]. 50 

IX. Reign of Athelstan [a.d. 925 to 940]. 52 

X. Reign of Edmund the First [A.D. 940 to 946]. 54 

XI. Reign of Edred [a.d. 946 to 955] . 55 

XII. Reign of Edwy [a.d. 955 to 958] . 57 

XIII. Reign of Edgar [A.D. 958 to 975]. 58 

XIV. Reign of Edward the Second [a.d. 975 to 979]. 60 

XV. Reign of Ethelred the Second [a.d. 979 to 1016]. 62 





















vi 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE 


Chapter XVI. Reign of Edmund Ironsides [a.d. 1016]. 67 

XVII. Reign of Canute [a.d. 1016 to 1035]. 68 

XVIII. Reign of Harold the First [a.d. 1035 to 1040]. 71 

XIX. Reign of Harthacanute [a.d. 1040 to 1042]. 72 

XX. Reign of Edward the Confessor [a.d. 1042 to 1066]... 73 

XXI. Reign of Harold the Second [a.d. 1066]. 78 

XXII. Society during the Saxon Era. 85 


BOOK IV. 

The Norman Rule. [From a.d. 1066 to 1154.] 


L Reign of William the First [a.d. 1066 to 1087]. 95 

IL Reign of William the Second [a.d. 1087 to 1100].105 

III. Reign of Henry the First [A.D. 1100 to 1135].116 

IV. Reign of Stephen [a.d. 1135 to 1154] . .125 


BOOK V. 

The Plantagenets. [From a.d. 1154 to 1485.] 

I. Reign of Henry the Second [a.d. 1154 to 1189]. 130 

II. Reign of Richard the First [a.d. 1189 to 1199]. 144 

III. Reign of John [a.d. 1199 to 1216]. 154 

IV. Society during the Norman and Early Plantagenet 

Period. 162 

V. Reign of Henry the Third [a.d. 1216 to 1272].171 

VI. Reign of Edward the First [a.d. 1272 to 1307].182 

VII. Reign of Edward the Second [a.d. 1307 to 1327].196 

VIII. Reign of Edward the Third [a.d. 1327 to 1377].205 

IX. Reign of Richard the Second [a.d. 1377 to 1399].217 

X. Society from the year 1201 to the year 1400 . 228 

XL Reign of Henry the Fourth [a.d. 1399 to 1413].237 

XII. Reign of Henry the Fifth [a.d. 1413 to 1422].245 

XIII. Reign of Henry the Sixth [a.d. 1422 to 1461]. 253 

XIV. Reign of Edward the Fourth [a.d. 1464 to 1483].264 

XV. Reign of Edward the Fifth [a.d.1483].274 

XVI. Reign of Richard the Third [a.d. 1483 to 1485].277 

XVII. The Plantagenets. Scotland [a.d. 1154 to 1485].283 

XVHI. Society during the rule of the later Plantagenets.. 28S 

BOOK VI. 

The Tudors. [From 1485 to 1603.] 


I. Reign of Henry the Seventh [a.d. 1485 to 1509]. 295 

II. Reign of Henry the Eighth [a. d. 1509 to 1547].308 

III. Reign of Edward the Sixth [a.d. 1547 to 1553].329 

IV. Reign of Mary [a.d. 1553 to 155S].338 
































CONTENTS. 


vii 

PAGE 

Chapter V. Reign of Elizabeth [a.d. 1558 to 1603]..352 

VI. Society in the time of the Tudors. 377 

BOOK VII. 

The Stuarts. [From 1603 to 1649.] 

I. Reign of James the First [a.d. 1603 to 1625].3S8 

II. Reign of Charles the First [a.d. 1625 to 1649]_._400 

BOOK VIIL 

TnE Commonwealth. [From 1649 to 1660.] 

I. The Republic [a.d. 1649 to 1653].428 

II. The Protectorate [a.d. 1653 to 1660].437 

IIL Society during the first half of the Seventeenth Cen¬ 
tury.;. 444 

BOOK IX. 

The Restored Stuarts. [From 1660 to 1714.] 

I. Reign of Charles the Second [a.d. 1660 to 1685].456 

II. Reign of James the Second [a.d. 1685 to 1689].469 

III. Reign of William and Mary [a.d. 1689 to 1694].480 

IV. Reign of William the Third [a.d. 1694 to 1702]. 487 

V. Reign of Anne [a.d. 1702 to 1714].490 

VL Society during the later rule of the Stuarts.498 

BOOK X. 

The House of Brunswick. [From a.d. 1714 to the present time.] 

I. Reign of George the First [A.D. 1714 to 1727].510 

II. Reign of George the Second [a.d. 1727 to 1760].516 

III. Reign of George the Third [a.d. 1760 to 1820].533 

IV. Reign of George the Fourth [a.d. 1820 to 1830].560 

V. Society during the reigns of the Four Georges. 565 

VI. Reign of William the Fourth [a.d. 1830 to 1837].582 

VII. Reign of Victoria [a.d. 1837]. 590 

VIII. The Present Condition of Great Britain.611 

IX. Natural Features and Remarkable Events. 618 

APPENDIX. 

I. Royal Families and Principal Cotemporary European Sovereigns.. 629 
II. Chronology of Events in the History of England.634 

















































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HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 


BOOK I. 


INTRODUCTION. 

CHAPTER I. 

THE BRITISH ISLANDS AND THE INHABITANTS. 

§ 1. The mists of fable.puzzle inquirers after the original popu¬ 
lation of the British Islands. History and tradition tell us that 
they were inhabited a thousand years before the Christian era, or 
almost thirty centuries ago. 

§ 2. Scholars now generally agree in opinion that the earlier 
settlers of the islands were Celts, a part of the great Indo-Euro¬ 
pean family who migrated from Central Asia in pre-historic times, 
and whose language was close akin to the Sanskrit, Greek, Latin, 
and German. 

§ 3. The British Islands are two in number, and are called re¬ 
spectively Great Britain and Ireland. They lie in the North 
Atlantic Ocean, between the 49th and the 61st degrees of north 
latitude, and the 2d of east and the 11th of west longitude from 
Greenwich, England. On the west is the open ocean between them 
and North America; on the east is the German Ocean or North 
Sea; and to the south and south-east lies France, which m some 
places is but twenty miles distant. It is believed that the two 
countries were once connected. 




HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 


2 


[Book I. 


Geographical Divisions. Great Britain and Ireland. 

§ 4. Great Britain, the larger of the two islands, contains in 
its southern part, England; in its western, Wales ; and in its 
northern, Scotland. The English Channel on the south, and the 
German Ocean on the east, divide it from France and Germany; 
and the Irish Sea, of which a narrow part is called St. George’s 
Channel, separates it on the west from the smaller island, Ireland. 

§ 5. England and Wales form together a tract of country of 
triangular shape, which is separated from Scotland on the north 
by the rivers Tweed and Solway, and the Cheviot hills, and on the 
south, east, and west sides it is washed by the sea. Its extent, 
from Berwick on the Tweed in the north, to the North Foreland 
in Kent on the south, is 355 miles; from Spurn Point in Yorkshire 
on the east, to Holyhead in Wales on the west, is 210 miles; and 
from the North Foreland in the east, to the Land’s End in Corn¬ 
wall on the west, is 320 miles. It contains 58,320 square miles. 

§ 6. Scotland , like England and Wales, is washed on three sides 
by the sea. On the fourth or southern side it joins England. Its 
extent, from Cape Wrath in Sutherland in the north, to the Mull 
of Galloway opposite Ireland in the south, is 280 miles; from east 
to west, between Aberdeen-shire and Ross-shire, its width is 150 
miles, but in Sutherland, which reaches from coast to coast, it is 
only 40. It contains 31,324 square miles. 

§ 7. Ireland lies to the westward of Great Britain, from which 
in one place it is but 15 miles distant; in other parts the two 
countries are from 60 to 120 miles apart. Its extent, from Fair 
Head in the north-east, to Mizen Head in the south-west, is 300 
miles; from Carnsore Point in the east, to Smerwick Head in the 
*west, is 170 miles; whilst from Dublin in the east, to Galway in 
the west, the distance is only 120 miles. The island contains 
32,513 square miles. 

§ 8. These countries are now all divided into districts called 
counties, or shires, of which England has 40, Wales 12, Scotland 
33, and Ireland 32. But formerly they were arranged in a very 
different way; there were Roman provinces, British, Saxon, and 
Irish kingdoms, and British-Norseman principalities. 

§ 9. In the waters around the British Islands are several smaller 
ones, single or in groups, which were known to the Romans and 
Saxons. The chief of these are, Sheppey, at the mouth of the 
Thames; the Isle of Wight , off Hampshire; the Scilly Isles , off 
Cornwall; Anglesey , off the coast of Wales; Man , in the Irish 


INTRODUCTION. 


3 


Chapter I.] 

British Islands. Great Britain visited by Foreign Navigators. 

Sea ; and the Hebrides and Orkneys , off the west and north coast 
of Scotland. These are their modern names, and differ but little 
from the Saxon ones. But the Romans called Sheppey, Toliatis ; 
Wight, Vectis ; Scilly, Cassiterides ; Anglesey and Man, both 
Mona ; and the Hebrides and Orkneys, Ebudes and Orcades. 

§ 10. The British Islands, as we have observed, were known at 
a very early period. History tells us that at least five hundred 
years before Christ, Phoenician navigators, in the service of the 
merchants of the old Syrian seaports of Tyre and Sidon, visited 
what is now the coast of Cornwall, in the south-west part of 
England, and the adjacent Scilly Islands. There they procured 
tin for the manufacture of bronze, a metal used by the ancients 
for many purposes for which we employ iron and steel. 

§ 11. The Britons, as the older inhabitants were called, dug the 
tin from mines, or washed it from the sands of streams, and cast 
it into ingots for the traders. These traders called the region the 
tin-land, or tin-islands ; and it is supposed that the name of Bri¬ 
tannia, by which the Greeks and Romans knew the country, is de¬ 
rived from the compound Celtic word, Bruit-tan— bruit , tin, and 
tan, land, as in the same language Hindos-tan is Hindoo-land. 

§ 12. Ireland appears to have been known to the same naviga¬ 
tors and others from the ancient Greek colony on the site of Mar¬ 
seilles, in France; and there are in history glimpses of an older 
and higher civilization there than in the island of Great Britain. 

§ 13. The Syrian merchants, and those of Carthage who were 
their successors in making distant trading voyages, tried to conceal 
from others all knowledge of the mineral wealth of Britannia. 
They failed; and in time, not only traders but settlers came fron} 
the neighboring coasts of Gaul (now France), and the Netherlands, 
to possess themselves of other riches in various parts of Great 
Britain, such as fertile soil, abundance of cattle, spacious and shel¬ 
tered harbors, and pearls in the rivers. 

§ 14. Upon the coasts and along the banks of rivers these later 
Celtic emigrants soon established themselves, either with or with¬ 
out the consent of the earlier inhabitants. In time they became 
so numerous and powerful that they pushed the ancient Britons 
back into the interior, when the social degeneration which they 
had experienced since their emigration from Asia, went on with 
accelerated pace, in isolation, until they ceased to be agriculturists 
and workers in metals. 


4 


HISTQRY OF ENGLAND. 


Condition of the Britons. 


[Book L 

Gaulish Settlers. 


§ 15. They became, in time, almost as barbarous as were the 
Indians of our coasts when Europeans found them; and nothing 
distinguished them from the wild hunter state of our aborigines 
but the fact that they were shepherds and herdsmen, and possessed 
accumulated wealth in cattle, sheep, and horses. Their clothing 
was made of the skins of beasts. They painted their half-naked 
bodies so as to be frightful to enemies. They shaved their beards, 
but let their mustaches and hair grow in wild profusion. Their 
weapons -were hatchets of stone, and bows, and arrows with flint- 
lieads. Caves were their dwellings in winter, and temporary wig¬ 
wams of wicker-work sheltered them in summer. 

§ 16. As herdsmen they were compelled to wander in search of 
game for food, and forage for their animals. To protect their 
wealth they made enclosures of felled trees, forming a sort of 
abatis, with a ditch outside; for, divided into hostile tribes, they 
were continually at war with each other. These strong enclosures 
were their fortified towns. They were usually built in a forest on 
the borders of a stream, and were large enough to shelter a whole 
tribe, with the horses and cattle. They had many of these. The 
city of London, the town of St. Alban’s, and many other modern 
cities and villages, occupy the sites of these capitals of the ancient 
semi-barbarian princes of Great Britain. 

§ 17. Very different was the condition of the Gaulish settlers 
and traders. They had orderly governments of kings, and nobles, 
and pr iests,, as in Gaul; they dwelt in circular houses, resembling 
those of their mother country; were well clothed, often in gar¬ 
ments of black cloth, which reached to their feet; wore long 
beards, and walked gravely with staves in then* hands. They had 
a gold coinage, many specimens of wdiich yet remain; and they 
wore rings of gold and other ornaments. They also made pot¬ 
tery, which they sometimes ornamented in style like that made 
by other semi-barbarous people. They made light boats of skins 
for fishing on the rivers, such as the Welsh, the descendants of 
these ancient inhabitants, yet use, and call coracles. They assi¬ 
duously cultivated the soil, and also traded with the opposite 
shores of France and perhaps Spain; and they were renowned for 
their fondness for, and courtesy to, strangers. 

§ 18. But what for a long time chiefly distinguished them from 
the native Britons was, that they were skilful in the art of war. 
They had weapons of iron and bronze, and war chariots, and 


Chapter I.] 


INTRODUCTION. 


5 


Religion of the Britons. Druidism. 

fleets of ships ; and they were in the habit of taking part in the 
wars of Gaul. Indeed Divitiacus, a king of the north and east of 
Gaul, who lived about sixty years before the birth of Christ, is said 
to have reckoned Great Britain as part of his dominions. 

§. 19. The religion of the ancient Britons was the same as that 
of the Gaulish or Gallic intruders. It was Druidism, the prevalent 
theology of the Celtic! race in Europe, and supposed to be iden¬ 
tical, in corrupted form, with that of the ancient Persians, which 
Zoroaster reformed, and whose devotees are known as fire- 
worshippers. They acknowledged one God, omnipotent, in¬ 
visible, and without form ; the creator, preserver, and ruler of the 
universe, and the final judge. Among the Druids a sort of 
pantheism had been ingrafted upon that pure Deism of the Per¬ 
sians, and there was a tendency to the worship of the symbol 
rather than the thing symbolized, as the sun and the powers of 
nature. They professed to reform morals, to secure peace, and to 
encourage goodness. They assumed to be conversant with the 
secrets of nature concerning the origin of worlds; the movements 
of the stars; the nature of planets; and the essence, power, and 
mode of action of the Supreme Deity, and of the inferior gods 
such as Egyptians and Greeks worshipped. Yet, like the most 
benighted pagans, they indulged in human sacrifices on great 
religious festivals or state occasions. Captives taken in war, 
criminals, and even children, were, by direction of the Druid 
priests, cast into huge human figures of wicker-work, in the 
making of which the ancient Britons were expert, and burnt to 
death on such public occasions. 

§ 20. The Druid priests, who dressed in a peculiar and costly 
manner, and were maintained at the public expense, were the 
acknowledged and reverenced teachers of the people. Their 
dwellings and their colleges were in forests of oak trees, which, 
with the mistletoe that grew upon them, were held to be sacred. 
They also exercised highest judicial functions, and from their 
decision there was no appeal. As priests, judges, teachers, philoso¬ 
phers, and soothsayers—holding all knowledge and all power— 
they attained to almost absolute rule over tlie ignorant multitude. 
That rule was beneficent, for they taught the principles of a 
higher civilization than prevailed among the degenerate people, 
and prepared the soil for the planting of Christianity in Great 
Britain in after years. 


6 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 


[Book I. 

Government of the Britons. Pursuits of the People. 

§ 21. The government of the early Britons, especially after their 
admixture with the Gauls on the coast, appears to have been 
monarchical in form. The executive power, under the Druid 
priests, was lodged in the chief of a tribe. Among the more 
northerly tribes, inhabiting Caledonia (Scotland) and adjacent 
islands, the king possessed no property, but had the free use of 
that of all his subjects. This regulation was to prevent his doing 
acts of injustice for the sake of possessions. He was not allowed 
to have a wife of his own, but the wives of all his subjects were 
at his disposal. So, not knowing his own children, he could not 
be tempted to encroach upon the rights of his subjects in the 
aggrandizement of his own family. Such was the plan of Plato, 
in his “ Republic,” for guarding against the same evils. 

§ 22. Agriculture and the arts were almost wholly unknown. 
The inhabitants lived upon the milk and flesh of their flocks and 
herds, and the winnings of the chase. They did not sow the land 
nor eat of the abundance of fishes in the waters; neither of the 
flesh of the hare, the goose, or the domestic fowl, which they 
raised for amusement. Even the Gaulic inhabitants of the coast, 
when the Roman legions came, were ignorant of the use of the 
flail and fan in the proper preparation of their grain for the flour- 
ing-mortar. But, in time, the intercourse between the dwellers by 
the sea and those inland caused a modification of barbarism all 
over the island. The more ancient inhabitants began to cultivate 
the soil; to make coarse cloth from wool; and they became 
expert in the manufacture of war-chariots, and in their use with 
swift horses, as in the days of the Hebrew kings. 

§ 23. Such were the inhabitants of Great Britain when the 
Romans landed on its shores, in the pleasant summer-time, fifty- 
five years before the birth of Christ. They found the island thickly 
populated. 


BOOK 11. 



THE ROMAN INVASION AND RULE, 
[From b.c. 55 to a.d. 410.] 


CHAPTER I 


CIVIL AND MILITARY TRANSACTIONS. 


§ 1. At midnight, between the 24th and 25th of August, in the 
year 55 before Christ, Julius Caius Caesar set sail for Great Britain 
from Portus Itius or Witsand, near Gessoriacum (now Boulogne), 
on the coast of Gaul, with two Roman legions, or about ten thou¬ 
sand men, all veterans, borne in eighty ships. These were accom¬ 
panied by several long war-galleys that carried catapulta, or 
simple engines which, by the force of springs, hurled huge darts 
and heavy stones. Cavalry were ordered to follow in other vessels, 
but were detained by adverse winds. 

§ 2. Caesar was then about forty-five years of age, and bore the 
honors of conqueror and governor of Gaul. His father was of 
praetorian rank; his mother was of the eminent Cotta family, and 
he was related to several powerful men of rank and station. He 
was tall, slim, physically weak, and subject to epileptic fits; but 
his mind was a marvel of power, by which he made himself “ the 
foremost man of all this world.” 

§ 3. He married at the age of seventeen years; and at the same 
time, or soon afterward, he entered warmly into politics as a mem¬ 
ber of the democratic party. His life, from that time, was marked 
by many vicissitudes. He was bold and ambitious, and was always 
more intent upon securing his own aggrandizement than in serv¬ 
ing his country. He held highest offices of trust and emolument; 
and finally, when in debt to the amount of several million dollars, 
he was appointed governor of Cisalpine Gaul. In the course of 



8 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book II. 

Invasion of Britain by Homans. Preparations for it by both Parties. 

eight years, after a series of the most sanguinary struggles, he 
reduced the whole of Gaul to a. Roman province, 

§ 4. As the Gauls had received aid from Great Britain, Caesar 
made :hat fact a pretext for invading the island, whose shores, on 
a clear day, he had dimly seen. His real motive for the enterprise 
was the gathering of pearls and other riches said to abound there, 
and to gain personal renown by the conquest of a mysterious coun¬ 
try among the waves. 

§ 5. Traders told the Britons that the conqueror of Gaul was 
about to visit them in wrath. They sent ambassadors over the 
Channel to promise him their obedience to his will. This was to 
delay his coming until the islanders might gather in sufficient 
numbers to oppose his landing. He sent back with the ambas¬ 
sadors, Commius, a Gaul, whom he had lately made king of a terri¬ 
tory, and who was well and favorably known to the Britons. He 
was instructed to visit as many of the tribes as possible, inspire 
them with good feelings, and announce his speedy coming. The 
Britons imprisoned Commius, defied Caesar, and prepared for a 
vigorous defence. 

§ 6. Meanwhile Caesar had sent Caius Volusenus in a galley to 
explore the coast and collect facts concerning the harbors ; but the 
bold aspect of the Britons, many of whom were made hideous by 
staining their half-naked bodies blue with woad, so daunted the 
voyager that he returned in the course of five days. Then Caesar 
sailed from the coast of Gaul. 

§ 7 The Roman fleet entered Dover Bay at ten o’clock [Aug. 25, 
b.c. 55]; but it was judged too dangerous to attempt a landing, 
because the cliffs were swarming with armed men. Therefore the 
invaders moved on until they had passed the South Foreland, and 
reached an open sandy shore, now known as Deal Beach. There 
the contest with the Britons commenced. 

§ 8. When the Romans attempted to land, they found they were 
engaged in a most desperate service. The Britons had followed 
them along the shore, and as their army was composed mostly of 
horsemen and charioteers, they had for a long time the advantage. 
The Romans, encumbered with armor, were obliged to quit their 
ships at some distance from the shore, and wade through the shal¬ 
low water ; and while thus struggling, the Britons rushed into the 
sea and drove them headlong into pools and holes, where many of 
them perished. The men soon became disheartened, and hesitated 


ROMANS IN ENGLAND. 


9 


Chapter I.] 


Landing of the Romans. Conflicts. Romans in peril. 

to leave their vessels, when Caesar ordered the ships of war to dis¬ 
charge their darts and stones. The Britons were obliged to give 
way beforp this kind of attack, which was to them both new and 
terrible. 

§ 9. Still the legionaries did not move until the standard-bearer 
of the Tenth Legion, invoking the gods with a loud voice, threw 
himself into the sea. They then felt obliged to follow him, lest 
their standard, a silver eagle, should be taken, and which would 
have been an indelible disgrace. They landed in great confusion, 
and as the Britons returned fiercely to the charge, they were in 
imminent danger of perishing. Caesar again employed his war¬ 
ships. He also sent all his boats, filled with soldiers, to aid 
them; and at last, after a very hard struggle, the Romans gained 
the firm land, and threw up an intrenchment for their protection 
on the height of Walmer. They did not venture to pursue the 
Britons, for the night was close at hand, and they had no horse¬ 
men. 

§ 10. The Romans remained in their camp for three days, anx¬ 
iously expecting the ships from Gaul, with the cavalry and most 
of their provisions and baggage. The Britons, however, who 
knew from their friends in Gaul the great power of their invaders, 
sent ambassadors to Caesar on the fourth day to treat of peace. 
With them came Commius, wfiiom they had imprisoned, and they 
begged that the act might be excused on account of their igno¬ 
rance. Caesar pardoned them, and promised them peace on condi¬ 
tion of their sending hostages, and agreeing to submit to his 
commands. 

§11. Scarcely was this peace concluded, when the expected ships 
from Gaul came in sight; but before their men and stores could be 
landed a storm arose, and they were driven away, some to the 
coast of Cornwall, where they were in danger of being wrecked, 
and others to the port they had sailed from. The same storm also 
destroyed many of the ships that Caesar had with him, and the in¬ 
vaders were filled with consternation. Their desperate condition 
induced the Britons to break the peace they had concluded; for 
they thought that if they could succeed in destroying the whole 
body of Romans, whether by sword or by famine, they would not 
again be invaded. 

§ 12. Accordingly they collected their forces, and falling on 
the Seventh Legion, which, unarmed, had moved a short distance 
1 * ^ 




10 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 


[Book II. 


A severe Battle. Mode of Fighting. Withdrawal of the Romans. 

from the camp to gather in the standing corn, they surrounded it 
with chariots and horses, and nearly succeeded in cutting it off. 
Caesar was obliged to go himself to its assistance; and he could 
scarcely secure its retreat to the camp, as his men were dismayed 
at the Britons’ mode of fighting. 

§ 13. The Britons had many horsemen ; but their chief strength 
was in their charioteers, who displayed at once the speed of horse 
and the firmness of foot. The chariots were drawn by small but 
very swift horses ; and these were so well trained that they could 
be turned or stopped when at full speed, even on the hillsides; 
and the warriors, who carried swords, spears, and darts, were 
most active and courageous. As they came on they threw their 
darts ; and when, by driving furiously about, they had broken their 
enemies’ ranks, they leapt on the ground and fought hand to hand. 
Their chariots, with drivers, kept near them, as a retreat if they 
were too hardly pressed; and the charioteers showed wonderful 
skill in running along the pole, or standing on the yoke, and still 
continuing the combat. 

§ 14. Rather encouraged than daunted by this battle in the 
open field, the Britons soon after attempted to storm the Roman 
camp; but this was beyond their power. The legions were mas¬ 
ters of the art of fortification, so they remained secure behind their 
intrenchments until the assailants were disheartened, and then 
Csesar drew out his forces, and after a fierce battle defeated them. 

§ 15. Soon after this, the Britons renewed their offers of peace, 
which Csesar gladly accepted ; and having repaired his damaged 
ships with the timber and iron from some of the wrecks, he crowded 
his men into them, and sailed for Gaul a little after midnight, 
about the 20th of September, having been in the island but about 
three weeks, and never having ventured out of sight of the shore. 
Yet he sent to Rome an account of his having subdued the Bri¬ 
tons ; and a twenty days’ thanksgiving was decreed on account of 
his imaginary victory. 

§ 16. In the next year [54 b.c.] Csesar renewed his attempt on 
Britain. His aid had been solicited by Mandubratius, the exiled 
son of a British king who had been conquered and killed by 
Cassivellaunus, a chief whose territories lay on the north of the 
river Thames. Having experienced the courage of the Britons, 
Csesar made much greater preparations than before, and commenced 
his campaign earlier. 


Chapter I.] ROMANS IN ENGLAND. II 

Second Invasion by Romans. Inland Operations. 

§ 17. After having been detained for twenty-three days by 
unfavorable weather, he left Gaul in May with a fleet of above 
800 ships, and a force of 25,000 foot and 2,000 horse. He sailed 
from Boulogne, and landed on Deal Beach, as before." 

o « j e P 8 

The sight of this great force dismayed the Britons. ’ 

They did not venture to oppose his landing, and disappeared ; so 
leaving a guard of 5,000 foot and 300 horse with the ships, Caesar 
marched soon after midnight in search of them. 

§ 18. About twelve miles inland, on the banks of the river 
Stour, near Canterbury, the Romans were attacked by the horse¬ 
men and charioteers of the Britons, who, when repulsed, threw 
themselves into a strong fortification of felled trees in the 
woods, but were at length driven out by the Seventh Legion, 
which had had some experience of their mode of fighting 
in the former campaign. b Caesar halted there for p g 

the night, but when on the following day he was 
despatching horse and foot in pursuit, he learned that a great 
storm had arisen, and had destroyed nearly all his shipping. 
This obliged him to hasten back to the shore, where he passed ten 
days and ten nights in repairing the damage as well as he could; 
and drawing up such ships as had escaped the storm, he joined 
them to the camp by a fortification, some traces of which still 
remain among the sand-hills between Deal and Sandwich. 

§ 19. Caesar again marched toward the Stour. He found the 
banks occupied by a large army of confederated Britons, who were 
under the command of Cassivellaunus. This prince was a renowned 
warrior, who had conquered many of his fellow-kings and added 
their states to his own, and he was now the leader of the whole 
force of the country. But many of his subjects and allies were 
secretly hostile to him, and were ready to abandon him if he was 
unsuccessful. Mandubratius c was employed to tamper e § ^ m 
with them, and he applied himself to a tribe called 
the Trinobantes, who inhabited the present Essex and Middlesex, 
and who had been his father’s subjects, and he soon gained them 
and others over to the Roman cause. 

§ 20. The force with Caesar was too great to be opposed in 
a pitched battle, so the Britons were obliged to retire before 
them, disputing their passage, however, wherever the ground 
was favorable to their horsemen and charioteers, cutting off 
the stragglers and foragers, and killing Liberius, an officer 


12 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 


The Romans successful. The Britons subdued. 


[Book II. 

The Romans retire. 


of rank, whose reputed grave is still to be seen near Chilham, in 
Kent. 

§ 21. The Romans inarched on day by day, and on arriving at 
the river Thames, they forded it near Walton, though the water 
rose up to their shoulders. They made the passage without much 
opposition ; for the Britons, who had assembled to dispute it, were 
dismayed, it is said, at the sight of an elephant with a tower filled 
with armed men—an object they had never before seen. Their 
horses could not be brought to face the monster, and, for the first 
time, their riders fled without a blow. 

§ 22. This decided the war. The tribes in the neighborhood of 
the Roman army now abandoned the confederacy, and made terms 
for themselves. Cassivellaunus, forsaken by all but 4,000 chario¬ 
teers, could only harass the invaders as they marched to his capital, 
which stood among woods and marshes, where now is St. Alban’s. 
This w r as stormed and taken ; and though. Cassivellaunus tried to 
protract the war by inducing four of the chiefs in Kent to attack 
the Roman camp, this did not avail him. The Britons were beaten 
off, and a great leader named Cingetorix was made prisoner. 

§ 23. Cassivellaunus was at length obliged to send Commius to 
treat for peace. Caesar demanded a great number of hostages ; 
and having obtained them, he imposed a yearly tribute on the 
Britons. Then, with a strict charge that no injury should be done 
to the tribes that had joined him, he marched back to the sea¬ 
shore. 

§ 24. Here he found his ships repaired, and fresh ones sent to 
him from Gaul; but his army and his prisoners w T ere too numerous 
to be all carried over at once. Some were sent off first, and the 
remainder waited in their encampment foj more ships. But these, 
though despatched from Gaul, were driven back by autumn 
storms; and at last Caesar, fearing the tempests of the coast, 
crowded his men into such vessels as he had, and taking advantage 
of a calm night in September [54 b.c.], put to sea, and reached 
Gaul by break of day. 

§ 25. Caesar did not conquer Britain. He was more a discoverer 
than a victor. He saw but a small portion of the island and the 
people, and could only maintain himself on the coast. He terri¬ 
fied the tribes and carried away many prisoners, but he did not 
erect a fort or leave a cohort or legion to hold the temtory which 
he temporarily seized. 


Chapter I.] ROMANS IN ENGLAND. 13 

Long Peace in Britain. British Kings. Cymbeline. 

§ 26. From the time of Caesar’s invasion, for nearly a century, Britain 
was not further molested by the Romans. The people had shown 
that they could not be readily subdued, and in the third year after 
Caesar’s last visit they were not afraid to give a refuge to Commius, 
his former ally, who fled from Gaul in consequence of a base at¬ 
tempt to assassinate him at a conference. The tribute that had 
been promised to Caesar a was not paid, and though 

r & a § 23, p 12. 

his successor Augustus made preparations for inva¬ 
sion, he was easily pacified by some trifling submissions. The 
Britons indeed were quite independent, though they seem to have 
been friendly to the Romans, for in the days of Tiberius [a.d. 16] 
they succored and sent back some of their soldiers who had been 
shipwrecked on their'coast. 

§ 27. Of the kings who reigned in Britain during this period 
the most conspicuous in history was Cunobeline or Cymbeline, the 
son-in-law of Mandubratras, b and with whom Shake¬ 
speare has made us familiar. He ruled the eastern ^ P 10 
part of the country, as Essex and Suffolk, and many of his gold 
coins have been preserved. He was the first of the British mon- 
archs who had his own image stamped upon his coins, in imitation 
of the Roman Emperors. They have inscriptions in Latin, and 
bear usually the figure of a horse or horseman, and an ear of 
wheat-; hence they are taken as evidences of the warlike power 
and the civilization of the Britons at that period. Cymbeline was 
one of the hostages taken to Rome, who, in time, was called back 
to Britain to take the seat of his royal father. Cymbeline’s wife, 
Cartismandua, was the first of the British queens after the Roman 
conquest that made a conspicuous figure in history. It was in the 
time of Cymbeline that the Romans renewed their attacks, and 
commenced the real occupation of Britain. 

§ 28. It was at about the time of the death of Cymbeline that 
the Romans were again moved to attempt the subjugation of the 
Britons. Rome was then the refuge for all the disaffected princes 
of that island. Among them was Adminius, the eldest son of 
Cymbeline, who, having offended his father, had been expelled 
from Britain. He induced the Emperor Caligula, an epileptic, a 
madman, and idiotic monster, to undertake an expedition against 
his country. With a large force the Emperor crossed Gaul to the 
sea [a.d. 40]. He went a little way from shore, looked toward 
Britain, caused his soldiers to gather shells into their helmets from 


14 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 


[Book II. 

Caligula’s folly. Third Invasion by Homans. Vigorous defence. 

the beach on the coast of Gaul, and then proclaiming that he had 
conquered the ocean, returned to Rome. 

§ 29. Caligula was murdered a few months afterward, and was 
succeeded by Claudius, a recluse fifty years of age. That Emperor 
was induced by Bericus, a fugitive from Britain, to undertake the 
conquest of the island. For that purpose he sent an army, home 
and foot, of nearly 50,000 men, under the command of Aulus 
Plautius, assisted by Vespasian, who afterward took Jerusalem 
and became Emperor of Rome. 

§ 30. This large force landed [a.d. 43] on the shores of Britain 
without much opposition. The confederated tribes were led by 
Caractacus and Togodumnus, sons of Cymbeline, but were tho¬ 
roughly defeated in the inland country, where these princes were 
slain. The Britons were weakened by the disaffection of some 
tribes, and the Romans pushed their victories beyond the Severn. 
At length Plautius withdrew to the south bank of the Thames, 
where he awaited the arrival of the Emperor, whose presence, and 
re-enforcements, he had earnestly solicited. Claudius remained 
in the island but sixteen days, yet in that time Camaludunum, 
the capital of Cymbeline, late king of the Trinobantes,* 

* § 19, p. 11. wag ta k en The Emperor, on his return to Rome, 
celebrated a triumph, and took the surname of Britannicus, as if he 
had subdued the whole country. 

§ 31. The war, however, was only begun. The Britons defend¬ 
ed themselves vigorously, and though the Romans secured every 
conquest that they made by building forts, and placing veteran 
soldiers with many privileges in towns which they founded, 
it was not until the seventh year of the contest that Caradoc or 
Caractacus, a Silurian or Welsh chief, the great leader of the 
Britons, was defeated. He was the son-in-law of Cymbeline and 
brother of Boadicea, queen of the Iceni. His mother-in-law, the 
now aged Cartismandua, b had become by marriage 

« § 17 p 23 Cadellan, queen of the Brigantes, 0 who were allies 

of the Romans. When Caractacus was defeated and 
wounded, he sought refuge with his mother-in-law. She delivered 
him to his enemies for a price, and he was sent in chains to Rome, 
with his wife and children. After being detained there for some 
time, he was, by an act of generosity then very unusual, set at lib¬ 
erty, and he returned to his native land. 

$ 32. The Silures (Welsh) continued the contest after they had 


Chapter I.] ROMANS IN ENGLAND. 15 

Combats and Insurrections. Oppressors of the People. Queen Boadicea. 

lost their leader, defeated Valens and a legion, and so harassed 
Ostorius Scapula, the governor, that he died of grief. Fresh gen¬ 
erals were sent, but they accomplished very little. Yenusius, a 
northern chief, who had become the third husband of Queen Car- 
tismandua, maintained the contest, and at last Suetonius Paulinus, 
with Agricola for his lieutenant, was appointed to the command. 
He overran a great part of the country, and captured the Isle of 
Anglesey (then called Mona), a where the Druids b had 
their chief seat; but while he was absent on this ex- | j’ 9 P p 2 ' 5 
pedition a general rising took place, which threat¬ 
ened to root out the Roman power altogether. 

§ 83. This was caused by Catus Decianus, who, as procurator, or 
treasurer, had the chief government in civil affairs, and in league 
with Seneca, a money-lender, practised the most cruel oppression 
on the subjugated Britons. One of their kings named Prasutagus, 
who ruled in Norfolk, in the hope of securing good treatment to 
his family, bequeathed one-half of his dominions to the Romans, 
but Decianus at once seized on the whole [a.d. 61], and when his 
widow, Boadicea, sister of Caractacus, remonstrated, she was 
scourged like a slave, and her daughters were infamously used. 

§ 34. Being a woman of sense and spirit, the queen (who could 
trace her descent from the monarchs of Egypt) roused her country¬ 
men, and was soon at the head of a vast, though disorderly army. 
She is described as one of the tallest of women, with a fierce coun¬ 
tenance and a harsh voice. She had yellow hair, which hung be¬ 
low her waist. She wore a collar of gold, and a party-colored 
flowing vest, and over this a thick mantle secured by a clasp. 
Standing in her war-chariot, she brandished a spear, and pointing 
to her dishonored daughters, who crouched in grief and shame on 
the ground, she exhorted her troops to “ play the man,” and avenge 
them. 

§ 35. The call was terribly answered. One Roman town after 
another was captured, and all within, whether foreigner or native, 
mercilessly slaughtered. London, which had already become a 
place of abundant commerce, was thus destroyed, Petilius Cerialis 
and a legion were routed, and Catus Decianus, the chief cause of 
the war, with difficulty escaped to Gaul. 

§ 36. On hearing the news of this outbreak, Suetonius inarched 
with haste toward the ruins of London with 10,000 veterans, and 
defeated Boadicea with terrible slaughter. It is said that 80,000 


16 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book II. 

The Britons under Boadicea slaughtered. Agricola’s Campaigns and Conquests. 

Britons perished on that occasion. The queen died soon afterward, 
and though her countrymen held together until they had honored 
her with a magnificent funeral, they were obliged at last to submit 
to Suetonius, who behaved so rigorously that he was recalled, lest 
his cruelty should provoke another revolt. 

§ 37. For eight years the natives bore the yoke in sullen sub¬ 
mission ; but when in the year 69 quarrels broke out among the 
Romans themselves, as to the choice of an emperor, Venu- 
sius ft again took up arms. Trebellius Maximus, the 

» § 32, p. lo. g enera ^ q c( j f rom him, and Petilius Cerialis was ap¬ 
pointed in his place. Agricola, who had served under Suetonius, 
now took the command in the field, and he had such success that 
he and the legion especially under his orders (the Fourteenth) re¬ 
ceived the appellation of “ Conquerors of Britain.” 

§ 38. Thus the time passed on until the year 78, when Agricola 
received the sole command, and he then began a series of seven 
campaigns, which ended in firmly establishing the Roman power. 
As he was a wise and humane man, he reconciled the people to 
their bondage, and induced their chiefs to adopt much of the man¬ 
ners and customs of their masters, to study their language, and to 
imitate their buildings. 

§ 39. In the first campaign [a.d. 78] Agricola conquered 
Mona (Anglesey), which had become independent again when 
Suetonius withdrew. In the second [a.d. 79] and third [a.d. 80] 
he overran the whole country as far as the Frith of Tay, and 
exacted as hostages the sons of the chiefs, whom he caused to be 
educated in the Roman manner. In the fourth, fifth, and sixth 
[a.d. 81, 82, 83] he steadily advanced through Scotland, and built 
*a chain of forts between the Clyde and the Forth. He also 
sought and obtained a knowledge of Ireland, with a view to 
attempting its conquest and subjugating the people. 

§ 40. In his last campaign [a.d. 84] Agricola overthrew Gal- 
gacus, the last champion of the North Britons. Then taking to 
his ships, he sailed as far as the Orkneys, and discovered, what 
was not before known, that Britain was an island. His great 
services, however, had provoked the jealousy of the Emperor 
Domitian, and he was recalled in the same year. 

§ 41. Though the Roman rule endured in Britain for no less 
than 326 years after the recall of Agricola, very few of the im¬ 
portant incidents that must havi occurred are recorded. The 


Chapter I.] ROMANS IN ENGLAND. 17 

The Roman Policy and Government in Britain. Insurrections and Invasions. 

country was governed at first by an officer styled a Legate, and 
afterwards by a Vicar, under whom were Presidents for each of 
the provinces, and a Procurator, who attended to the finances. 
But the chief support of the Roman power was in their settlements 
of veteran soldiers, who received lands and privileges, instead of 
the pensions of modern times. 'J'hey dwelt together in fortified 
towns called colonies, and in an army usually of three legions, to 
which was attached about an equal number of auxiliaries from 
Gaul or Germany, making together full 30,000 foot and 6,000 
horse. Rebellions were guarded against, as far as possible, by at 
least as large a body of the native youth being sent to serve in 
other countries along with the legions—a policy that the Romans 
always pursued. The troops were stationed in strong forts and 
camps at very moderate distances from each other, of which about 
150 are known; and they also garrisoned two formidable ram¬ 
parts, known as the Wall of Agricola and the Wall of Hadrian, 
which stretched across the island, and separated the subdued from 
the unsubdued Britons. 

§ 42. Many of the British chiefs were allowed to retain the title 
of King, and some part of their territoiies; but the policy of 
Agricola, which was followed by his successors, had the effect of 
rendering them utterly powerless, and they seem seldom to have 
headed their countrymen in the struggles that were still occasion¬ 
ally made for freedom. 

§ 43. One of these risings occurred in the year 117, and it ap¬ 
peared so formidable, that in 120 the Emperor Hadrian visited the 
island and ordered the wall that bears his name to be built. In 
138 the Brigantes, being despoiled of their lands, took up arms, 
and this occasioned the strengthening of the Wall of Agricola. 
About forty years later the northern tribes burst through this 
barrier, and the repulsing them was thought so important that the 
reigning Emperor, Commodus, took the title of Britannicus, as fora 
new conquest of the island. This commotion was scarcely quieted 
when Clodius Albinus, the Roman commander, assumed the title 
of Emperor. He held possession of the island for a while, but at 
length, in 197, passing over into Gaul, he was there defeated and 
killed, and the first British army that had fought on the continent 
was cut to pieces. 

§ 44. The Roman power in Britain was of course greatly weak¬ 
ened by this misfortune, and in the year 201 Virius Lupus, the 


18 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book II. 

Campaign of Severus. Decline of the Roman Empire. An independent British Emperor. 

governor, was obliged to purchase a peace of one of the northern 
tribes. Soon afterward the Emperor Severus visited Britain, had 
the Wall of Hadrian rebuilt, and made a campaign against the 
Caledonians. He also took the surname of Britannicus, as if suc¬ 
cessful ; but full 50,000 of his men perished in the war, and he 
himself died at York soon after his return, in the year 211 of the 
Christian era. 

§ 45. From this time forward the power of the Roman empire 
declined daily. Generals rose up in almost every quarter, and 
proclaimed themselves emperors, and all things fell into confusion. 
The governors of Britain took advantage of this to render them¬ 
selves almost independent, and for nearly eighty years they re¬ 
mained so, until a Romanized Britain found means to reduce the 
island to his obedience. 

§ 46. This was Carausius, who was the commander of a fleet that 
was employed to guard the coast of Britain and Gaul from the 
ravages of the unsubdued nations of the north of Europe, after¬ 
wards so well known as the Saxons. These people, before the 
year 286, had visited Britain, and small bodies had even estab¬ 
lished themselves there, with the connivance of Carausius, as was 
supposed. Finding himself suspected, and in danger, he acted 
promptly. He set sail from Gessoriacum ft (Boulogne), where he 
left a strong garrison, landed in Britain, repulsed 

a § lf p ' 7 ’ several formidable attacks by the Emperors Maximian 
and Diocletian, and at length obliged them to acknowledge him 
as a sharer of their empire. 

§ 47. Carausius now struck coins with the proud inscription, 
“Romano renova,” and others with a ship, showing his know¬ 
ledge of the true arm of strength for Britain. Although Ges¬ 
soriacum was taken from him in 292, and he himself was killed 
two years afterwards by his minister Allectus, who succeeded to 
his power, it was not until 296 that the island was subdued, and 
then mainly through the circumstance of Constantius Chlorus, the 
Roman general, passing the British fleet in a mist. That victori¬ 
ous general, who had formerly married a British princess, the re¬ 
nowned St. Helena in the annals of the Christian Church, remained 
in the island until his death. His power descended to his son by 
Helena, afterwards known as Constantine the Great, who was the 
first Christian emperor. 

§ 48. In the year 867 a revolt broke out in the army and navy 


Chapter I.] ROMANS IN ENGLAND. 19 

Ravages of the Piets and Scots. End of Roman Rule in Britain. 

in Britain, when Fullofaudes and Nectaridus, the commanders, 
were slain. Theodosius, a general, being sent over, restored order, 
drove back the northern tribes, named the country that they had 
occupied Yalentia, in honor of tlft Emperor Valentinian, and re¬ 
paired or rebuilt many of the towns. These northern tribes 
were known as Piets (because they painted themselves) and 
Scots, who inhabited the present territory of Scotland. They 
were first mentioned at about this time. In 383 there was an¬ 
other revolt, when the army made their general, Maximus, 
emperor, and passing over to Gaul, may be said to have aban¬ 
doned Britain. 

§ 49. The semblance of the Roman rule was, however, kept up 
for nearly thirty years longer, and hence the Britons, when har¬ 
assed by the northern tribes and the sea-robbers, still applied to 
the Emperors for assistance. Thus in the year 396 a legion was 
sent to Britain, which drove back the Piets and Scots, and re¬ 
paired the Wall of Severus ; but it was soon recalled, and a British 
army was then raised to defend the country. This army soon 
imitated the Romans, by choosing an emperor for itself,—first 
Marcus, then Gratian,—but both were killed within a short time. 
Then the title was by them bestowed on a private soldier 
named Constantine, who, not content with ruling in Britain, 
carried an army over to France and Spain, and held possession of 
them until he was defeated and killed, four years after. 

§ 50. As soon as Constantine and the army had departed, the 
northern tribes again burst in and ravaged the country. The 
people in a body then took up arms, but instead of driving back 
the invaders they expelled all the Roman magistrates, and utter 
anarchy in consequence soon prevailed. The Emperor Honorius 
then wrote letters to the British cities releasing them from alle¬ 
giance to the empire, and thus their long connection with it came 
to a close. 

'§ 51. This was in the year 410, the same year that Rome itself 
was taken by the Goths; but many of the Romans remained in 
the island until the year 418, when, an old English writer says, 
“ they collected all the treasures that were in Britain, and some 
they hid in the earth, so that no one has since been able to find 
them, and some they carried with them into Gaul. And so de¬ 
parted from this island the Roman people and the Roman rule.’ - 


20 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 


Effects of ftoman Rule in Britain. 


[Book II. 

Christians and Christianity in Britain. 


CHAPTER n. 

GEOGRAPHICAL AN$ POLITICAL DIVISIONS. 

§ 1. The Roman conquests of Great Britain introduced a civiliz¬ 
ing agent there in Christianity. The seeds of the new religion 
were planted here and there, one by one, and germinated and 
spread without any of the miracles mentioned in legends. It was 
first gradually diffused over the South of England, where the in¬ 
fluence of the Romans was chiefly felt, and seems to have made 
considerable progress as an organized institution when Diocletian 
persecuted the Church of Christ everywhere. Then it was, late in 
the third century, that a pagan convert, who was canonized “ St. 
Albans,” perished for the faith, and is held to be the first British 
Christian martyr. 

§ 2. At the evacuation of the country by the Romans, Christians 
were numerous in Great Britain and Ireland. Churches, prelates, 
priests, and monks abounded ; and the country was represented in 
ecclesiastical councils as a province of the Church of Rome. Dru- 
idism had corrupted the purity of Christianity ; and the ecclesias¬ 
tics were not much more saint-like in life than the laity. They 
were politicians, and when occasion required they fought with 
carnal weapons while shouting Allelujahs. But with zeal they 
planted the principles of Christianity in the hearts and minds of 
the people, which bore glorious fruit. 

§ 3. We have already observed that the form of government in 
ancient Britain was monarchical, and largely influenced by, if not 
wholly under the control of, a theocracy composed of the Druid 
priesthood. Before noticing the government introduced by the 
Romans, and for the purpose of obtaining a clearer understanding 
of the history, early and later, of Great Britain, it seems proper 
here, at the close of the brief record of Roman rule, and the begin¬ 
ning of the British independence that was followed by Saxon in¬ 
vasions and conquests, to give an account of the political divisions 
of the people and country into tribes or nations, and provinces, 
at the period which we have been considering. 

§ 4. We have noticed the origin of the word Britain or Britan- 
g 11-p 3 nia. ft The island was also called Albion, or White 
Land, a name suggested by the white chalk cliffs of 
Dover, nearest Gaul. It was also called Ierne, or the Sacred 


OnAPTER II.] 


ROMANS IN ENGLAND. 


21 


Political Divisions of Great Britain. 

Isle, the fabled resting-place of the sun in the far west to 
Orientals. 

§ 5. The Romans did not visit Ireland, but held a portion of Great 
Britain for almost 400 years. The territory which they actually 
occupied they called Hither Britain {Britannia Giterior ), and that 
which they failed to subdue, Farther Britain {Britannia Ulterior ). 

§ 6. They divided Hither Britain into five great provinces, whose 
names show the gradual progress of the Roman arms. These were, 
First Britain {Britannia Primai) ; Second Britain {Britannia JSe- 
cunda ); Flavia Caesarean province {Flavia Ccesariensis) ; Great 
Caesarean province {Maximus Coesariensis), and the province of 
Yalens ( Valentia). 

§ 7. First Britain was the South of England, and was first con¬ 
quered by the Romans. Second Britain was Wales, which resisted 
the invaders several years longer. The Flavian Caesarean province 
was the central part of England, or the midland and eastern coun¬ 
ties of the present day. This, as we have seen, was 
subdued about the same time as Second Britain, a and 
was secured by a line of forts extending from the Nen to tne Avon. 

§ 8. The last conquest by the Romans was the Great Caesarean 
province, which occupied the rest of the country, and which was 
divided from the north country by two great walls, b 
to keep out the Piets and Scots. These broke over the 
walls c and reconquered what is now Northumberland and the South 
of Scotland. They were driven out, and the country # ^ ^ ^ 

between the walls was then named Yalentia, in honor 
of the reigning’ emperor. See the map forming the frontispiece 
of this*Work. 

§ 9. We will now consider more particularly those Roman 
divisions, with the British tribes, the Saxon kingdoms, and the 
modem counties contained in each. 


* § 39, p. 16. 


» § 41, p. 17. 


First Britain {Britannia Fima). 

§ 10. This comprised all that part of the South of England 
which lies between the sea and the rivers Thames and Severn, and 
which is now divided into the counties of Kent, Surrey, Sussex, 
Southampton, Berks, Wilts, Somerset, Dorset, Devon, and Corn¬ 
wall. . The British tribes in this province, who are known to us 
only by their Romanized names, were the Cantii, who occupied 
Kent; the Begnii, who inhabited Surrey ; the Atrcbatii and Belgce, 


22 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 

Second and Central Britain and the Inhabitants. 


[Book II. 


who dwelt in Hants, Berks, Wilts, and Somerset; the Durotriges, 
who occupied Dorset; and the Dumnonii , who held Devon and Corn¬ 
wall. The Saxons divided the province into the kingdoms of Kent, 
Sussex, and Wessex. Kent had about the extent of the county at 
the present day. Sussex included Surrey, and Wessex occupied the 
rest of the district. The capitals of these kingdoms, in the order 
named, were respectively Canterbury, Chichester, and Winchester. 

Second Britain {Britannia Secunda ). 

§11. This province comprised the district beyond the Severn, 
now called Wales, which is divided into two districts, known as 
North and South Wales. In North Wales are the six counties of 
Anglesey, Caernarvon, Flint, Denbigh, Montgomery, and Merion¬ 
eth. In South Wales are six more, called Radnor, Brecon, Gla¬ 
morgan, Pembroke, Caermarthen, and Cardigan. The Roman 
province also comprised Monmouthshire and Herefordshire, coun¬ 
ties on each side of the Severn, which have long been parts of 
England. 

§ 12. The British tribes in this province were the Ordovices, in 
the northern part; the Silures , a in the south ; and the 
« § 32, p. 14. j) emet(Js ^ on ti ie -western sea-coast. The Saxons did not 
subdue Wales. The country was generally divided during the 
Saxon era into the three kingdoms of Gwynneth, or North Wales ; 
Dynevor, or South Wales; and Powys, on both sides of the 
Severn. The rulers respectively bore the titles of kings of Aberfraw, 
of Cardigan, and of Mathraval, the names of the chief towns in 
their several states. 


Flavia Gcesariensis. 

§ 13. This was the central part of England, which lies north of 
the Thames and south of the Humber, with the German Ocean on 
the east and the Severn on the west. Passing westward along the 
course of the Thames we have the counties of Essex, Middlesex, 
Buckingham, Oxford, and Gloucester. Along the Severn, or near 
it, going northward, are Hereford, Worcester, Salop, and Chester. 
On the coast are Lincoln, Norfolk, and Suffolk; and in the 
centre are Hertford, Bedford, Huntington, Cambridge, North¬ 
ampton, Rutland, Leicester, Warwick, Stafford, Derby, and Not¬ 
tingham. 


Chapter II.] ROMANS IN ENGLAND. 23 

Central and Northern Britain and the Inhabitants. 

§ 14. The British tribes in this province were the Trinobantes , 
the Catyeuclilani, and the Dobrinii , near the course of the Thames ; 
the Cornarii, along the east side of the Severn; the Coritanii, in 
Lincolnshire and the interior; and the Icenii, in Norfolk and Suf¬ 
folk. 

§ 15. The Saxons established in this province the four king¬ 
doms of Essex, Middlesex, East Anglia, and Mercia. Essex and 
Middlesex were nearly the same as the modern counties of the 
same name. East Anglia comprehended Norfolk and Suffolk, 
and Mercia occupied the rest of the province. 

Maxima Ccesariensis. 

§ 16. This province was the region north of the Humber, ex¬ 
tending to the Tyne. It now includes the counties of York and 
Durham, on the German Ocean; and Lancaster, Westmoreland, 
and Cumberland, on the Irish Sea. 

§ 17. The powerful British tribe known as the Brigantes. , a oc¬ 
cupied the greater part of this province. There was 

• • • ® g 31, p« 14* 

a tribe .known as the Parisii , who were seated on the 

Yorkshire coast, near the mouth of the Humber. 

§ 18. The Saxons divided the province into the two kingdoms 
of Deira and Bemicia. The former lay to the north, and extended 
into the present Scotland ; but the two states were often governed 
by the same rulers, and formed the kingdom of Northumber¬ 
land. 


Valentia. 

§ 19. This province lay between the Tyne and the Frith of Forth, 
a territory conquered by Agricola, b afterward recov¬ 
ered by the Britons, and again reconquered 0 and § 39, p- 1(5 ‘ 
named Yalentia. c § 48, p * 18 * 

§ 20. The tribes that inhabited that region were the Novantm 
and the Selgovce , in the west; the Gadenii, in the centre, and the 
Ottadinii, in the east. They occupied the present counties of 
Galloway, Ayrshire, Selkirk, and Northumberland. The Damnii 
dwelt in the country extending from the Clyde to the Tweed. 

§ 21. Besides the Saxon kingdom of Deira, which projected 
into this province, there were, for a while, some small British states 
on the western skle, in what is now Strathclyde; and at a later 


24 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 


North Britain. 


[Book II. 

Tribes of the Highlands of Scotland. 


date the Northmen and the Scots had principalities in Cum¬ 
berland. 

§ 22. Within the boundaries of Valentia were the famous 
Roman Walls. The Northern, known as Agricola’s, and now as 
Graham’s dyke, extends from the Forth to the Clyde, and was the 
northern boundary of the Roman dominions in Britain. The South¬ 
ern, known as the Wall of Hadrian, and also as the Piets’ Wall, 
^ 44 stretched from the Tyne to the Solway. This was 
rebuilt by Severus, a and much of it is well preserved. 
Oh the north side, exjiosed to the barbarians, it presented a face 
of stone, with a ditch; and on the south side was an earth embank¬ 
ment and ditch. It was 68 miles in length, and had numerous 
watch-towers. See the frontispiece map. 

§ 23. The tribes beyond the Northern Wall inhabited the moun¬ 
tainous region now known as the Highlands of Scotland. They 
bore the general name of Caledonii or Caledonians, and for that 
reason the whole country was called Caledonia. The Orkney and* 
Shetland Islands, beyond the mainland on the north, and the He¬ 
brides on the west, were almost unknown to the Romans, and were 
never occupied by the Saxons. In later times Northmen from Ice¬ 
land or Norway established principalities on them. 


CHAPTER IH. 

SOCIETY BEFORE THE SAXON INVASION. 

§ 1. With the Roman conquest, Roman laws were imposed 
upon the Britons. They were administered by a series of depend¬ 
ent officers, each subordinate to the one above him, up to the em¬ 
peror, and were mere executors of his will. There were no co¬ 
ordinate powers to serve as mutual checks. It was a simple 
administrative despotism, whose highest officer was at first a 
single president of the Romanized portion of Great Britain. In 
b § 6 p 21 time ^ lere were who governed the five provinces 
already mentioned. b 

§ 2. These presidents also exercised judicial functions. Having 
thus despotic power placed in their hands, they often used it without 



































































































































































I 










■ I 














ROMANS IN ENGLAND. 


25 


Chapter III.] 

The Roman Government in Britain. Industrial Operations. 

stint in the levying and collecting of extortionate taxes, supplying 
soldiers for the Roman army, and in various other ways serving the 
State. Some Britons, residing in towns or municipalities, were in¬ 
vested with the privileges of Roman citizens while the great mass of 
the people were slaves to cruel oppressors, without any political 
rights. They were in bonds as inexorable as those with which their 
ancestors had been bound by the Druid theocracy. And yet Roman 
laws, literature, manners, and industries were levers which lifted 
the people up from the dark regions bordering on barbarism to 
the illuminated heights of an advancing civilization. 

§ 3. Very soon after the conquest, new industrial operations 
appeared in Britain. When the Romans came they had no traffic 
but in tin and lead. They had no ships for trade or war, and were 
but infants in the business of the world. Under the stimulus of 
Roman influence, Great Britain became, before the departure of 
the conquerors, a great mine of agricultural wealth, from which 
the continent drew large supplies. Gold, silver, iron, tin, lead, 
skins, fleeces, horses, cattle, shfeep, dogs, human slaves, cheese, 
chalk, lime, marl, pearls, fish, and other products, were exported 
in British vessels, whose managers were such expert 
seamen that the navy of Carausius a was manned ^ 46, P ‘ 18 ’ 
chiefly by them. 

§ 4. Literature and the fine arts of poetry and music were culti¬ 
vated exclusively in the Druidic order. The common people had 
no part in it. That priesthood possessed remnants of the old civil¬ 
ization of the East, and some were quite proficient in song, elo¬ 
quence, music, astronomy, medicine, botany, and chemistry. But 
with the advent of the Roman rule, the whole people became 
instructed by the sight of elegant and even magnificent specimens 
of architecture ; works of the chisel exquisitely wrought, and in 
time a great variety of skilful handicraft; and in the Roman 
cities in Britain, schools were established for the education of the 
chiefs and princes of the tribes. 

§ 5. We have already b considered some of the habits and cus¬ 
toms of the ancient Britons. Little more may be said. 

§ 15, p. 4. 

In marriage there seems to have been a sort of permit¬ 
ted polygamy. Several men and women clubbed as residents 
under one thatch, and these husbands and wives were in common 
relations. Yet there is evidence that woman was held in so high 
esteem that this practice must have been exceptional. 

2 


26 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book II. 

Literature and the Fine Arts. Customs and Costume. 

§ 6. At death the old Britons, like the barbarians of our wil¬ 
dernesses, generally buried the body with weapons, implements, 
and ornaments. Frequently all were placed in a strong coffin of 
wood, and a tumulus raised over the dead. Some of these tumuli 
or barrows, as they are called, resembled in form and size the 
sepulchral mounds found in this country, that were reared by a 
people of whom we have no other knowledge. The British bar- 
rows were evidently the sepulchres of chiefs, for no other persons 
could have commanded the labor necessaiy to erect them. In 
some instances the earth was brought from long distances. In 
the more ancient barrows the bodies were placed in a sitting pos¬ 
ture, the knees drawn up to the chin. Sometimes the remains 
were burnt, and the ashes, placed in vessels, were deposited in 
such sepulchres. This practice they probably learned from Cae¬ 
sar’s men. 

§ 7. After the invasion, the manners and customs of the people 
rapidly changed. They abandoned their wicker-work and mud 
huts for stone and brick houses. So early as the time of Agricola, 
the sons of British chiefs wore the Roman costume, and men and 
women cut and dressed their hair after the Roman fashion. Even 
the common people ceased tattooing and painting themselves. 
The whole aspect of society and the country changed; and the 
eulogies of Roman writers lead us to believe that at the time of 
the evacuation, and perhaps long before, Britain was regarded as 
one of the most advanced, best, and happiest of the Roman pro¬ 
vinces. A Roman writer, expatiating upon the excellences of the 
island, spoke of it as “ a land so stored with com, so flourishing 
in pasture, so rich in variety of mines, so profitable in its tributes; 
on all its coasts so furnished with convenient harbors, and so im¬ 
mense in its extent and circuit.” Another speaks of it as a land 
whose “ woods have no savage beasts ; no serpents harbor there to 
hurt the traveller. The days are long, and no night passes without 
some glimpse of light.” 


BOOK III. 


THE SAXON ERA. 

[From the Fifth to the Eleventh Century.] 


CHAPTER I. 

THE EARLY INVADERS FROM THE NORTH. 

, \ 

§ 1. Before the Romans evacuated Great Britain, the inhabitants 
of Northern Europe, near the borders of the German Ocean and 
the Baltic Sea, who had not been brought under Roman rule, 
made predatory excursions, in stout little vessels, to the coasts of 
Germany and Gaul, and occasionally to Albion. These are known 
in history and romance as Scandinavian sea-kings. They came 
from the now separate countries along the Elbe and Rhine ; from 
Jutland, Denmark, Sweden, and Norway. They were all of the 
Teutonic or Gothic race. The Roman writers speak of them all 
as Saxons, so named, probably, from the short-sword, called seax, 
which they all wore. 

§ 2. So early as the second century these marauders were known 
and felt by the Romans, and before the end • of the third century 
they had established themselves in various parts of Britain. When 
the Romans finally withdrew, there were in Great Britain more 
than thirty cities which had been allowed to govern themselves 
in many matters. Among these were London, York, Chester, 
Canterbury, Winchester, and Exeter. Instead of joining for 
common safety, they became so many petty and hostile States; 
and the ravages of the Scots and Piets, and the sea-rovers, grew 
more dreadful than ever. The country was reduced almost to a 
desert, and Roman civilization was nearly obliterated. 

§ 3. From the time of the Roman evacuation until the Northern 
pagans became absolute masters of Britain, a period of about one 
hundred and fifty years, the truth of history is so covered in fiction 
that it is difficult to find it. The tales about Vortigern and 



28 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book III. 

Influence of Christian Bishops. Stories of Vortigem and Rowena, and of King Arthur. 

Rowena, Hengist and Horsa, and of King Arthur, are evidently 
“founded on facts,” but they cannot be called history. 

§ 4. There are, doubtless, grains of truth in the story that the 
Bishop of London united the Britons by inducing them to accept 
a king in the person of a British-born prince named Constantine, 
who, during a reign of ten years, pushed back the Piets and 
Scots; that Vortigern, a powerful noble, crowned one of dead 
Constantine’s sons with his own hands, when all bishops refused 
to do so; that Vortigern caused the new king to be murdered, 
and then seized the crown for himself; that his cruelty made his 
subjects refuse to fight the Piets; and that he invited two brothers, 
Hengist and Horsa, Saxon chiefs, with their followers, to help 
him, and gave them, for their services in dispersing the Piets, the 
Isle of Thanet. 

§ 5. There are, doubtless, grains of truth in the story that 
Vortigern loved and married Rowena, the beautiful daughter of 
Hengist; that the Britons deposed Vortigern, and made his son, 
Vortimer, king; that he fought the Saxons well, but was driven 
by them out of Kent, when Hengist took the title of king,-and 
began the Saxon dominion in Great Britain; that Vortimer was 
poisoned by his step-mother, Rowena; that Hengist, under pre¬ 
tence of friendship, invited Vortigern and other chiefs to a coun¬ 
cil, and treacherously murdered all but Vortigern; and that the 
huge stones at Stonehenge, on Salisbury Plain, mark the place of 
the massacre. 

§ 6. Then we have stories of the struggles between Vortigem 
and the brothers Ambrosius and Pendragon, who drove the former 
into Wales, where he was burnt to death in a castle; how they 
fought their way to London, where Ambrosius was crowned king; 
then fought and killed Hengist; restored the churches which the 
pagans had destroyed; was poisoned by a son of Vortigern and 
Rowena, and was succeeded by his brother Pendragon, father of 
the celebrated Arthur. 

§ 7. Then we have the marvellous stories of the deeds of Pen¬ 
dragon, and Arthur, whose chief adviser was Merlin, the Welsh ma¬ 
gician, by whose direction the commemorative stones on Salisbury 
Plain were brought from Ireland; how Pendragon was poisoned, 
and Arthur, who became king, defeated the Saxons in twelve des¬ 
perate battles, and expelled or made tributary all of the pagans; 
how he made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem ; held a splendid court at 


Chapter I.] THE SAXON-ERA. 29 

True Story of the Saxon Invasion, and of Arthur. Character of the Invaders. 


Carlisle; established the order of the Round Table, composed of 
valorous knights, both Christian and pagan; wielded his enchanted 
sword, and after reigning thirty years, was mortally wounded by 
his nephew, and was buried in the Isle of Avalon by the side of 
his faithless wife, Guenever. 

§ 8. The plain story of Arthur’s military life appears to be, that 
he kept the Saxons in check, so that until after his death they had 
no footing in Britain, excepting in the eastern part, and that the 
hope of eventually driving them from the island died with him. 

§ 9. The Saxons, as has already been told, had established them¬ 
selves in various parts of Britain before the end of the third cen¬ 
tury, and as the Roman empire grew weaker, their settlements no 
doubt increased. It seems most probable that they seized on the 
Isle of Thanet, ft and then, being in no danger of expul- a ^ 4 p 28 
sion from their strong position, mixed in the quarrel 
between Vortigern and his great rival Ambrosius, whose father was 
a Roman general, and his mother a British princess. Their fellow- 
rovers joined them in numbers, when, after two battles, the Brit¬ 
ons abandoned Kent to them, and fled in great terror to London. 
Horsa, one of the Saxon leaders, had been killed at Aylesford two 
years before this, and now his brother Hengist became the first 
Saxon king of Kent. 

§ 10. The people who had now established themselves in Britain 
were idolaters, and took especial delight in destroying churches 
and murdering priests. They believed that all who fell in battle 
would be at once received into Valhalla, or the Hall of Woden, 
one of the gods of the Scandinavian theology from whom most 
of their chiefs professed to be descended. For this reason they 
exhibited a fearlessness as to their own lives, and a joy in combat, 
that appeared more than human. They seemed to delight in storms 
and tempests, braving the roughest seas in their small boats; and 
when they chose to land in any country, they ravaged all around 
with fire and sword. They often ascended the rivers as far as their 
vessels could go, and then, abandoning them, seized on all the 
horses that they could find, and, as a mixed body of horse and 
foot, forced their way to some other stream. Then they built 
fresh barks, and descending to the sea, carried off their spoil and 
captives. A large portion of each was given to the temples of 
their gods, and the victims to be sacrificed were determined by 
lot. All these ravages they practised in Great Britain, but they 


30 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book IIL 

The People who invaded Britain, and their Settlements. The Heptarchy. 

met a resistance there which they never encountered elsewhere. 
According to the best calculation of dates, nearly a hundred and 
fifty years elapsed between the foundation of their first sovereignty 
in Kent, and their complete establishment in the central parts of 

the country, to which they gave the name of the king- 

§ 12, p. 33. ]yj erc j a a 

§ 11. The Romans confounded the sea-rovers together under one 
general name of Saxons, but we are able to distinguish at least 
three different tribes among the conquerors of Britain—the Saxons, 
the Angelns or Angles, and the Jutes. 

§ 12. The Jutes, the least numerous of the three, were the first to 
establish themselves, and they soon became more civilized than the 
rest, as is testified by the discoveries that have been made of rich 
ornaments in their graves. They came from Jutland, now a pro¬ 
vince of Denmark, at the mouth of the Baltic Sea, and conquered 
Kent and the Isle of Wight. 

§ 13. The Saxons, who came from the country between the 
mouths of the Elbe and the Rhine, now Hanover and Holland, 
conquered all the south and west of Britain except what the 
Jutes held, and the country on the north of the Thames from 
London to the sea, and the river Stour, in Suffolk. 

§ 14. The Angles, who dwelt on the Elbe, between the Saxons 
and the Jutes, were the last to arrive. They occupied the land 
from the Stour to the Forth, and from the German Ocean to the 
Severn and the Irish Sea. Holding then so large a portion of the 
country, they have given its present name of England (Angeln- 
land), or the land of the Angelns, or Angles, to South Britain. 
(See the frontispiece map.) 


CHAPTER II. 

BISE AND HISTORY OF THE HEPTARCHY. [FROM THE FIFTH TO THE 
NINTH CENTURY.] 

§ 1. According to the dates usually followed, Hengist founded 
the kingdom of Kent in the year 457, and after a reign of thirty- 
one years, he was succeeded by his son Esc. In the mean time 
Ella, the Teutonic chief, with his three sons, Cymen, Cissa, and 



Chapter II.] THE SAXON ERA. 31 

Foundations of Kingdoms. The Britons aroused. Ravages of the Invaders. 

Wlencing, accompanied by a large body of men, bad landed on 
the south coast in 477, and established the kingdom of Sussex. 
Cerdic followed in 495, and laid the foundation of a third king¬ 
dom, but he was unable to effect much until assisted by Port, and 
his sons Bieda and Msegla, and Stuf and Withgar, the latter of 
whom gave his name to the Isle of Wight, 11 as Port a g 0 p 0 
did to the towns of Portsmouth and Porchester. 

Cerdic suffered a great defeat near Bath from Arthur, but he suc¬ 
ceeded in establishing the kingdom of Wessex in 519. 

§ 2. The coming of so many bodies of invaders had effectually 
roused the spirit of the Britons, and they evidently made a most 
gallant defence. Anderida, a Roman town, on the site of which 
stands Pevensey, was captured after a long siege by Ella, and 
utterly destroyed, when he assumed the title of King, and was 
besides chosen as the commander-in-chief of his countrymen, under 
the name of Britwalda, a Saxon term meaning “ a widely-ruling 
chief,” or emperor of Brit (Britain). Six other monarchs bore 
the title after him, but in their case it was assumed by themselves, 
and had a different meaning: it implied with them an imperial 
supremacy over the other Saxon kings in peace as well as in war. 

§ 3. The ravages of the invaders had hitherto been confined to 
the south and west of Britain, but the east and the north were at 
length assailed. Erkenwin established the kingdoms of the East 
and Middle Saxons (Essex and Middlesex) about the year 526; 
Uffa landed in Norfolk or Suffolk about the same time; and in 
547 Ida began the conquest of the country between the Humber 
and the Frith of Forth. He landed at Flamborough Head, and 
passing northward, built a castle at Bamborough. But this must 
not be confounded with such structures as the Romans erected, for 
we are told that it was only a hedge enclosing the top of a cliff on 
the sea-shore. To replace the hedge by a wall of wood, and that 
by a wall of stone, was the work of later rulers than Ida, and the 
stately fortress that at last arose there, and still stands, was built in 
the time of William the Norman. 

§ 4. The conquest of Ida formed the kingdom of Northumbria, 
which is considered as founded by him in 547 ; but Uffa and his 
successors met so much resistance that it was not until 571 that 
they took the title of Kings of East Anglia or Angle. The 
interior of the country was reduced by Crida about 586, and he is 
reckoned the first King of Mercia. 


32 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 


[Book III. 

Britons driven into Wales. Explanation of names. The Britwaldas. 

§ 5. At about this time, or a little later, Cavetius, the leader of 
the unconquered Britons, was driven with his followers across the 
Severn into Wales, Cornwall, and Cumberland, where they gave 
up the contest in despair, and left the rest of the country to the 
pagan Saxons. These had already divided the conquered territory 
into a number of States called the Heptarchy, or Seven Kingdoms, 
though they really amounted to nine, and sometimes ten. 

§ 6. It may be well to explain here the names that these differ¬ 
ent States received. Kent is a corruption of a British word mean¬ 
ing “ a corner,” a term descriptive of its position. Sussex , Wessex, 
Essex, and Middlesex mean, the kingdoms of the South, West, East, 
and Middle Seax or Saxons. East Anglia is the State of the Angles, 
which was on the east coast; Northunibria is the kingdom north 
of the river Humber or- Umber ; and Mercia, derived from a word 
now corrupted into “ march,” is the Frontier State. Mercia had 
the unconquered Britons on its western side, and was thus the 
“ march land ” of the Heptarchy. 

§ 7. The title of Britwalda was first bestowed on Ella of Sussex, 
and for more than fifty years after his death no other king aspired 
to it. At length it was assumed at about the same time by Ethel- 
bert of Kent and by Ceawlin of Wessex; and as it was then meant 
to imply a superiority over their fellow-kings, this led to a war, in 
which Ethelbert was defeated, and the title was secured by Ceaw¬ 
lin. On the death of Ceawlin, however, it passed to Ethelbert, 
and in succession was held by Redwald of East Anglia, and by 
Edwin, Oswald, and Oswy of Northumbria; but, for some reason 
which is not now known, it was not assumed by the kings of Mer¬ 
cia or of Wessex, though these gradually incorporated the other 
States with their own. 

§ 8. A history of the successive transfers of this supremacy will 
give the chief points in the affairs of each State, and show how the 
number of kingdoms became gradually less and less, until all were 
annexed to Wessex, and the kingdom of England, properly so 
called, was founded. 

§ 9. Kent, as the earliest founded and more powerful kingdom, 
had a supremacy over the neighboring States of Essex and Middle¬ 
sex, so that they have little history of their own. Neither has Kent 
after the first contest with the Britons, until the war with Wessex 
[a.d. 568], in which Ethelbert was defeated at Wimbledon, in 
Surrey. 


Chapter II.] THE SAXON lERA. 33 

Strife between the States. Kingdom of Mercia. Introduction of Christianity. 

§ 10. Ceawlin, the victor, who was the grandson of Cerdic, 
turned his arms next against the Britons, and for thirty years he 
was their most formidable foe. His brother Cuthwolf drove them 
from Buckingham and Oxford shires, whilst Ceawlin and another 
brother, Cutha, pushed westward, and captured Gloucester, Ciren¬ 
cester, and Bath. The Britons, however, still opposed him, and 
though defeated near Stroud, killed Cutha. Ceawlin then re¬ 
turned to Wessex, when his pride on account of the towns and 
spoil that he had taken provoked a confederacy against him, in 
which his brother Ceol joined, and he was driven from his king¬ 
dom. Attempting to recover it, he was defeated at Wembury, in 
Devonshire [a.d. 593], and he died a fugitive two years afterward. 

§ 11. The envied title of Britwalda was now assumed by Ethel- 
bert, but the real supremacy passed to Northumbria, where there 
reigned a cruel and warlike usurper, Ethelfrid, who made war on 
the Scots in Cumberland, and on the Britons in North Wales. 
For many years he sought the life of Edwin, the rightful heir, but 
was at last defeated and killed by one of Edwin’s protectors, 
[a.d. G17], Redwald of East Anglia. Redwald bore the title of Brit¬ 
walda, but little except this defeat of Ethelfrid is recorded of him. 

S 12. In the mean time a new State had arisen, 

s a § 10, p. 29. 

that of Mercia; a but Crida, its founder, was killed in 

593, and his son Wibba became a dependent on Ethelbert of Kent. 
Four years later [a.d. 597] an event occurred in Kent, the most im¬ 
portant of any since the landing of the Saxons. 

§ 13. King Ethelbert had married, twenty years before, Bertha, 
the young and beautiful daughter of Charibert, king of Paris, in 
Gaul or France. She was a Christian princess, and brought with 
her a French bishop, Luidhard, as her chaplain. A small British 
church, that stood on a hill outside the walls of Canterbury, and 
had escaped the destruction that had overtaken so many nobler 
edifices, was granted to her as a place of worship. St. Martin’s, 
Canterbury, now occupies its site. This, of course, was a means 
for making the truths of the Gospel in some measure known 
among the idolatrous Saxons; and when Ethelbert himself ap¬ 
peared favorably disposed, Pope Gregory the Great sent a mis¬ 
sion to endeavor to effect his conversion and that of his subjects. 

§ 14. This was a matter that Gregory had long meditated. 
Several years before, while yet but a priest, he had conceived the 
idea of attempting the conversion of the Saxons, from seeing in 


34 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book III. 

Efforts of Pope Gregory. The Angles in Rome. Augustin in Britain. 

the slave-market at Rome three boys, who were distinguished from 
the rest of the captives by their fair and ruddy complexions and 
their long flowing hair, which last, in those days, was a mark 
of noble, if not royal birth. He inquired of the slave-dealer about 
their country and their religion. He learnt that they came fiom 
the distant Isle of Britain, and that they were pagans. Asking 
their nation and the name of its king, he was told that they w T ere 
Angles from the province of Deira, and that its ruler was named 
Ella. He replied they should rather be called angels; that they 
were truly Deirans (which means, plucked from the wrath of God), 
and that not Ella, but Allelujah, should one day be named in 
their country. 

§ 15. Anxious to accomplish his saying, Gregory left Rome for 
the purpose of journeying to Britain 5 but he was followed and 
carried back by the people, to whom he was much endeared, and 
he was soon after chosen Pope. He intrusted the British mission to 
Augustin, a Benedictine monk, who, with about forty others of his 
class, landed in Thanet in the spring of 597, and there held a con¬ 
ference under an oak with Ethelbert. Augustin spoke through an 
interpreter. The king listened attentively, and invited them to Can¬ 
terbury. Bertha received them with joy; and in June Ethelbert 
and his court were baptized. He was the first Christian king of 
the Saxon race. His subjects followed his example, and thou¬ 
sands of them were baptized in an arm of the Medway, which 
separates Sheppey from Kent. Christian churches again appeared 
in the land. Pagan temples resounded with Christian hymns, and 
pagan religious ceremonials and feasts were converted into Chris¬ 
tian rituals and festivals. 

§16. Augustin was appointed Archbishop or Primate of the 
Church in Great Britain. The royal palace at Canterbury was given 
to him for a residence; and he proceeded to organize his See, and 
bring the independent British bishops beyond the Severn into unity 
with the Church of Rome, and make them his auxiliaries in the 
work of converting the Saxons. Because they refused to acknow¬ 
ledge the supremacy of the Pope, several of those bishops were 
put to death with the sanction of Augustin. He died at Canter¬ 
bury in the year 605, leaving Laurence, a fellow-missionary from 
Italy, as his successor. 

§ 17. Christianity was thus established among the Saxons. But 
the seed had taken feeble root. On the death of Ethelbert [a.d. 616] 


Chapter II] THE SAXON ERA. 35 

Lapse into Paganism. Story of Edwin of Deira. He become* King of Northumbria. 

the sin of the beautiful Bertha caused the people of Kent to re¬ 
lapse into paganism. Ethelbert’s son and successor, Eadbald, be¬ 
came enamored of his step-mother, and they were married. His 
Christian subjects reproved him for the incestuous act, when, in 
anger, he turned to his old Teutonic idols. Very soon the whole 
people of Kent also forsook Christianity. At length Laurence, the 
Archbishop, persuaded Eadbald to return to, the fold, when his 
Kentish subjects followed like a flock of sheep. His sister, Ethel- 
burga, who was baptized by Laurence, was the means of afterwards 
introducing Christianity among the Northumbrians.- 

§ 18. This was brought about in a remarkable manner. Edwin, 
the son of that Ella of Deira already mentioned, had, on his fa¬ 
ther’s death, been deprived of his kingdom by his kinsman and 
brother-in-law Ethelfrid, and had lived nearly thirty years an exile, 
when the usurper discovered that Edwin was protected by Redwald 
of East Anglia. Then he threatened that king with war unless he 
either gave him up or put him to death. Redwald, in great alarm, 
deliberated on what to do, when his queen, fearing that the dread 
of the power of Ethelfrid might induce her husband to betray 
his guest, warned Edwin of his danger, and he left the palace at 
night to seek shelter in the woods. Here he fell asleep, and in a 
dream was assured by a majestic person that his kingdom should be 
restored to him. Next he inquired if, when that had been accom¬ 
plished, some more excellent way of life than any that his ances¬ 
tors had followed should be proposed to him, he would adopt it. 
Edwin eagerly promised that he would. The figure laid his right 
hand solemnly on his head, and saying, “ When this sign is re¬ 
peated, remember your pledge,” vanished. 

§ 19. While Edwin mused on this wondrous vision, the queen 
sent to tell him that her husband had resolved to defend him; and 
he did so. Redwald defeated and killed Ethelfrid, and Edwin 
became king of Northumbria. He soon grew so pow- # ^ g ^ ^ 
erful that he became Britwalda, a and was esteemed 
the sovereign of all Britain, the kingdom of Kent only excepted. 

§ 20. With this kingdom Edwin now formed an alliance by 
marrying Ethelburga, sister of Eadbald of Kent, who, like her 
mother Bertha, was accompanied by a bishop, Paulinus, to her 
new home. Paulinus labored to convert the king, but his labor 
seemed vain, until Edwin’s heart had been softened by liis provi¬ 
dential escape from an assassin sent by Cwiclielm of Wessex, and 


36 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book III. 

Edwin becomes a Christian. Spread of Christianity checked in Northumbria. 

by joy for the recovery of his young queen, whose death at child¬ 
birth had appeared imminent. He then listened more favorably, 
and allowed his infant daughter, Eanfleda, and twelve of his 
nobles, to be baptized. 

§ 21. Paulinus awaited Edwin’s return from an expedition 
against Wessex, and then coming into the King’s presence he laid 
his right band on his head, as the figure in the dream had done, 
and cried, “ Redeem your pledge.” All Edwin’s scruples gave 
way before the remembrance of the vision, and he prevailed on 
his chief men to become Christians. They were baptized together 
in a wooden church, hastily built for the occasion, on Easter-day, 
in the year G27. The cathedral of York occupies its site. 

§ 22. Edwin’s subjects followed his example, and the heathen 
temples throughout his dominions were destroyed; Coifi, the chief 
priest, who is believed to have been a Druid, leading the way in 
the attack on them. 

§ 23. The reign of Edwin had hitherto been prosperous, and his 
just and wise government endeared him to his subjects. But now 
the Mercian kingdom was become powerful. Penda, the son of 
that Wibba who had been the tributary of Ethel- 

a § 12, p ' 33 ' bert, a ascended the throne, and leaguing himself 
with Cadwallader, a British or Welsh chief, he attacked Edwin, 
who was defeated and killed at Hatfield Chase, in Yorkshire, 
in 633. 

§ 24. This event put a stop to the exertions of Paulinus to con¬ 
vert the Northumbrians. He retired to Kent, taking Edwin’s 
widow and child with him, and the people relapsed into idolatry. 
But his place was supplied by Aidan, a Scottish bishop, who 
labored successfully among them, and became the first bishop of 
Lindisfarne. He and his successor Colman belonged to the ancient 
British Church, which differed from that of Rome in many 
matters, as in the time of celebrating Easter; and when Roman 
missionaries again appeared, great dissensions broke out, which 
ended in the British bishops being obliged to retire. 

§ 25. By the death of Edwin, the supremacy passed to Mercia. 
That kingdom, as has been mentioned, had become dependent on 
Kent; but in 627 Penda, the grandson of the founder, succeeded. 
He was fifty years old when he became king, and he ruled for thirty 
years, the terror of the surrounding States. In the early part of 
his reign he allied himself with the Britons, and in concert with 


Chapter II.] 


THE SAXON ERA. 


37 


Career of Penda. 


Northumbria supreme. Christianity restored there. 


them ravaged Northumbria as far as Bamborough, burning every 
house or hut that he found in his way. He killed Edwin and 
Oswald, the kings of Northumbria; drove Kenwalch of Wessex 
from his kingdom; and slew in succession three kings of East 
Anglia. These were Sebert, the first Christian king of that coun¬ 
try (who had become a monk, but was dragged from his cloister 
when the land was invaded, and was killed along with his brother 
Ecgric), and Anna, whose brother Ethelhere joined Penda against 
him. At last Penda was himself slain at the age of eighty, and the 
treacherous Ethelhere fell with him. 

§ 26. The supremacy now reverted to Northumbria. Its former 
ruler, Ethelfrid,* left several sons, who on his death 
retired to Scotland, where they became Christians, 
and remained until the fall of Edwin. One of them, named 
Oswald, then came forward, secured the throne, and assumed the 
title of Britwalda. Aidan, the Scottish bishop already men¬ 
tioned, b acted as his interpreter to the people. After 
a reign of nine years, he too fell before the arms of 
Penda, at Oswestry, in Shropshire, in the year 642, and the bar¬ 
barous victor fixed his head and hands on stakes, where they re¬ 
mained many years until they were recovered and honorably buried 
by his brother Osway, son-in-law of the good 
Edwin, whose daughter, Eanfleda, c he had married. 

§ 27. Osway at first succeeded to but a part of the dominions 
of Oswald, but at length he obtained the whole. He de¬ 
feated and killed the ferocious Penda, at Winwidfield, near Leeds, 
in 655, and reduced Mercia to submission. He suffered Peada, the 
son of Penda, who had become a Christian and married Ostryth, 
Osway 1 s daughter, to reign as his vassal. In concert with him 
Osway founded the celebrated abbey of Medeshamstede, which was 
afterward called Peterborough. In his time was held a' council at 
Whitby, where the mode of celebrating Easter and other matters 
were decided according to the views of the Roman party, upon 
which the Scottish teachers withdrew to their own country. Osway 
died in 670, after a prosperous reign of twenty-eight years. 

§ 28. Christianity had by this time been firmly planted in all 
the kingdoms excepting Sussex, chiefly through the influence of 
women. “ Thus,” says Hume, “ the fair sex have the merit of in¬ 
troducing the Christian doctrine into all the most considerable 
kingdoms of the Heptarchy.” The East Anglians were converted 


» § 11, p. 33. 


*> § 24, p. 36. 


c § 20, p. 35. 


38 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book IH. 

General spread of Christianity. Introduced into the Isle of Wight. The Career of Ina 

in 631, through the exertions of Sebert, who was afterwards killed 
by Penda. Felix, a Burgundian, was their first bishop, and he 
was placed at Dunwich. Wessex received the faith in 635, and 
Birinus, a Roman monk, became their first bishop at Dorchester, in 
Oxfordshire. Kent, Essex, and Northumbria had been converted 
long before, and now that Northumbria was again triumphant, 
Mercia was converted, and Diuma, a British bishop, was placed at 
Lichfield by Osway. 

§ 29. Peada, the son of Penda, as we have seen, a was tribu¬ 
tary to Osway, his father-in-law, but his brother Wulf- 

§ p. 3(. k ere re g a j ne( j independence, and made war success¬ 
fully on Wessex. Having conquered the Isle of Wight, he sent 
priests to convert the people, and bestowed the land on Ethwalch 
of Sussex, who had been baptized at his court, but the people of 
Sussex did not receive the Gospel until the year 680. 

§ 30. Wulfhere died in 675, and botli Ethelred his brother and 
Coenred his son became monks. Thus the superiority passed to 
Wessex, which had been depressed by the power of Mercia. Ken- 
walch, Escwin, and Ken win were successful against the Britons, and 
Ceadwalla, who was still a heathen, made war on Kent and subdued 
Sussex, but after a three years’ reign he went to Rome, and was 
there baptized, under the name of Peter. He died seven days after¬ 
ward, when Ina, who was a distant kinsman, succeeded, and ruled 
with vigor and success for forty years. 

§ 81. Ina made war on Mercia, and killed Ceolred, its king; 
reduced Kent to dependence, and again subdued Sussex, where 
Aldbright, a member of the old royal family, had taken arms 
against him. He also defeated the Britons; but he is most remark¬ 
able for a collection of laws which bears his name, and which 
served as the base of those of the great Alfred long after. Ina 
built a monastery at Wells, in Somersetshire, and rebuilt Glaston¬ 
bury, endowing both with rich gifts. At length he resigned his 
crown to his kinsman Ethelhard, and retired to Rome, where he 
died. He gave one penny yearly from each house in his kingdom 
to support an English school and house of pilgrims at Rome, and 
this payment was the origin of the Peter-pence so often mentioned 
in history, as the edifices built were the precursors of the English 
College at Rome of the present day. 

§ 32. Under the successors of Ina, Wessex maintained its pre¬ 
eminence, and was sometimes allied with Mercia against the Brit* 


THE SAXON EKA. 


CnAPTER II.] 


39 


The last great Prince of the Heptarchy. 


The Career of Offa. 


ons, sometimes at war with it. At last, in 755, Offa, the nephew 
of Ethelbald of Mercia, who had been defeated by Cuthred of 
Wessex, became king, and he was the last great prince of the 
Heptarchy. He subdued Essex and Kent, defeated Cynewulf of 
Wessex, and also the Britons; but he showed his weakness rather 
than his strength against the latter, by constructing a yast wall 
and ditch to protect his States from their ravages. It extended 
from Flint to Bristol, and is still to be traced in many places. It 
bears the name of Offa’s Dyke. 

§ 33. Whilst Offa thus ruled, Mercia was the paramount State. 
Northumbria had fallen into a condition of anarchy; East Anglia 
was seized, after Ethelbert, its king, had been treacherously mur¬ 
dered; Essex and Kent were tributaries; and Wessex fell under 
the influence of Mercia, when its throne was usurped by Britliric, 
who married Edburga, a daughter of Offa. In his latter years 
Offa professed penitence for the murder of Ethelbert. He built 
the famous monasteries of St. Alban’s and Bath, made Lichfield 
the see of an archbishop, and greatly added to the donation of Ina, 
so that Peter-pence became payable from the whole of England, 
and not, as before, from Wessex only. The tribute was exacted 
until the reign of Henry the Eighth, almost eight hundred years 
afterward. 

§ 34. Offa, though warlike and cruel, was an enlightened prince. 
He enacted laws which Alfred embodied in his own, patronized 
learned men, and cultivated the friendship of Charlemagne, the 
ruler of France and Germany, to whom he sent several Saxon 
scholars, by whose labors the famous University of Paris was 
founded;—so greatly had England advanced in learning, even in 
times that are usually represented as ages of blood and con¬ 
fusion. 

§ 35. Offa died in 794, and the power of Mercia died with him. 
The tributary States endeavored to shake off the yoke, and though 
they did not at once succeed, their discontent had great influence 
in again bringing Wessex forward as the ruling State, and event¬ 
ually breaking up the Mercian kingdom. Brithric, “ of the blood 
of Cerdic,” as he is termed, the son-in-law of Offa, drove Egbert, 
another of the royal family, into exile, and reigned tyrannically in 
Wessex for sixteen years; but at last he was poisoned by his wife, 
when Egbert., who had long resided in the court of Charlemagne, 
was by the unanimous voice of the people called to the throne. 


40 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 


[Book III. 

Strife for Independence. The first Monarch of England. His wars. 

Egbert, by mingled war and policy, rendered all the other States 
tributary to Wessex; and thus becoming the first monarch of the 
■whole of England, brought the Heptarchy to a close in the early 
part of the ninth century. 


CHAPTER III. 

reign of Egbert, [a.d. 800 to 837.] 

§ 1. When Egbert was chosen king he was at Rome along with 
his protector, Charlemagne. He speedily returned to Wessex, 
which had already been attacked by the Mercians under Kenwulf, 
the nephew of Offa, a warlike prince. The Mercians however, 
were defeated, and had too many troubles with their tributary 
States to be able to carry on the war; therefore a peace was con¬ 
cluded. 

§ 2. Egbert ruled Wessex for several years in peace," but in the 
year 813 he conducted a large army against the Britons in West 
Wales,* and ravaged their country. This greatly 
s ’ 1 ' added to his renown, and he was henceforward con¬ 

sidered the chief prince of the Heptarchy. Still he made no 
attempt on the other kingdoms until the death of Kenwulf, in 819. 
The murder of his son Kenulf, by his sister Quendreda, threw 
Mercia into anarchy, and its tributary States renounced their 
obedience. 

§ 3. Egbert at length, in 823, sent his son Etlielwulf into Kent, 
where Baldred, the last king, was defeated,and driven out; Sussex, 
Essex, and East Anglia submitted to him; two usurpers of the 
Mercian throne were slain, and that kingdom was entirely conquered 
in 827. The Northumbrians were invaded in the same year, and, 
daunted by the power of Egbert, they submitted without a battle. 

§ 4. The Heptarchy was now brought to a formal close ; but as 
the conquered States were still ruled by tributary kings, as many 
of them had been long before, the change was not so great as is 
usually represented. The country now consisted of four States, 
Wessex, Mercia, East Anglia, and Northumbria, which differed in 
laws, in manners, and even in language. Wessex was at most but 
the first among them. This supremacy was often endangered, and 



\ 


Chapter III.] THE SAXON ERA. 41 

The Heptarchy ended. The British States. Invasion by Northmen. 

more than once lost; but it was always recovered, and it endured 
until the close of the Saxon power. 

§ 5. In token of his success, Egbert now took occasionally the 
title of King of the English, instead of that of King of Wessex ; 
and the appellation of Brit-walda, unused for nearly 200 years, was 
revived by him. 

§ 6 . He next turned his arms against North Wales, and ravaged 
the country; but this was almost his last success, for a new enemy 
now T appeared, who inflicted on the Saxons as many calamities 
as they in former ages had brought upon the Britons. These 
were fierce adventurers, or pirates, from Denmark, Norway, and 
the neighborhood, who are properly to be termed Norsemen, or 
Northmen, but who, as coming at first principally from Denmark, 
are usually styled Danes. 

§ 7. These people had commenced their ravages in England in 
the time of Brithric, Edgar’s predecessor. They destroyed the 
church of Lindisfame (Holy Island), and another at the mouth 
of the Weir in 794 ; but some of their ships being wrecked, and the 
men who reached the shore murdered, they withdrew to Ireland, 
where they ruined a very celebrated monastery and seat of learning 
at Rachline Island. Then, partly as traders and partly by force, 
they established themselves in strong positions along the east coast. 

§ 8. In the mean time, others attacked the Scottish coast; but 
meeting a formidable resistance, they also gradually settled in 
Ireland, where, as has been mentioned, the natives had hitherto 
lived securely, cultivating learning and sending forth missionaries, 
who diffused the light of the Gospel to very distant regions, and 
were consequently little able to oppose these armed hordes. 

§ 9. These settlers wqre known in Ireland as the Ostmen (or 
Eastmen), because they came not direct from the north, but from the 
eastern countries, England and Scotland. Irish writers distin¬ 
guished the Danes from the Norwegians, calling the first the Dark 
strangers, and the latter the Fair strangers; but whether this refers 
to the difference of their complexions, or of their arms and equip¬ 
ments, is not known. 

§ 10. The chief commercial cities of Ireland, as Dublin, Water¬ 
ford, Cork, and Limerick, were all possessed by the Ostmen, and 
ruled by chiefs, who struck coins on which they are styled kings. 
They soon became Christians, and had bishops who owned obedi¬ 
ence to the Archbishop of Canterbury ; and thus an intercourse was 


42 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book III. 

Ireland invaded. Christianity in Ireland. Political Divisions. 

maintained with England which eventually led to the conquest of 
the island by Henry the Second. 

§ 11. Ireland was never occupied by the Romans or Saxons. 
When, in later times, we find it connected with English history, it 
was divided into five kingdoms, known respectively as Munster, 
Leinster, Meath, Ulster, and Connaught. There were some little 
independent domains, composed of a seaport and adjoining lands 
that had no political significance. The English invaders broke 
up the Irish kingdoms; but four of them retain their ancient 
names as modem provinces, namely, Munster, Leinster, Ulster, and 
Connaught. 

§ 12. Munster is in the south and south-west of the island, be¬ 
tween Waterford and Galway, in which are the cities of Waterford, 
Cork, Limerick, Cashel, and Clonmel. 

§ 13. Leinster (which includes ancient Meath) is on the east coast, 
from Cariingford to Waterford and Wexford, and comprises the 
cities of Dublin, Trim, Kildare, and Kilkenny. 

§ 14. Ulster extends across the north of Ireland, from Cariing¬ 
ford to Donegal Bay. In it is Armagh, the ecclesiastical capital 
of the island; also Belfast, Londonderry, and Enniskillen. 

§ 15. Connaught, in the west, lies between the bays of Donegal 
and Galway, and the river Shannon, and contains the cities of 
ancient and modern Galway, Tuam, Elphin, and Kilala, all cathe¬ 
dral cities ; also Athenry, Athlone, Aughrim, and Ballinamuck. 

§ 16. It was in the year 832 that the Norsemen reappeared in Eng¬ 
land, and ravaged the Isle of Sheppey.® They next 
§ 9, P . 2. i an( j e( j j n Dorsetshire, and defeated Egbert at Char- 
mouth, and then they formed an alliance with the Britons in 
Cornwall. Egbert marched against them, and defeated them at 
Hengistdown, near Callington; but his victory did not put a stop 
to their invasions, and in the midst of the anxieties caused by 
these new foes he died, leaving the crown to his son Ethelwulf, 
who was ill-fitted to supply his place. 

§ 17. Egbert died in the year 837, and was buried at Winches¬ 
ter. His wife was named Redburga, but her parentage is un¬ 
known. Besides Ethelbald, who died before him, he had two sons 
—Ethelwulf, who succeeded him, and Athelstan, who is known as 
king of Kent. The genealogy of the present royal family of Eng¬ 
land is satisfactorily established from his time. Queen Victoria 
is the thirty-sixth in lineal descent from Egbert. 


THE SAXON ERA. 


43 


CnAPTER IV.] 

Norsemen invaders again. 


Pilgrimage to Rome. 


CHAPTER IV. 

REIGN op Ethelwulf. [a.d. 837 TO 858.] 

§ 1. Ethelwulf had been educated for the Church, but the 
death of his elder brother obliged him to ascend the throne. He 
seems to have been a pious and liberal man, but he had not the 
warlike spirit that was necessary to cope with the invading North¬ 
men or Norsemen, who were led by Ragnar Lodbrok, a fierce chief. 
Before he was king he commanded the army that conquered Kent 
from the Mercians; but this and a victory over the Norsemen at 
Ocklev, in Surrey [a.d. 851],, where his son Ethelbald was present, 
were his only successes. 

§ 2. Ethelwulf gave up the government of the southern and 
eastern parts, as the most exposed, to his brother Athelstan, and 
there the Norsemen received checks both by sea and land; but 
they defeated Ethelwulf at Charmouth [a.d. 840,] ravaged Lon¬ 
don, Rochester, and Canterbury, and in 851 remained encamped 
for the winter in Thanet for the first time. In the same year 
Athelstan died, and an attempt to drive them from Thanet signally 
failed. The pirates discovered that there was no longer an Egbert 
in the land, and they ravaged the country almost without check. 
In the year 855 they wintered in Sheppey, which was ever after one 
of their strongholds. 

§ 3. No longer supported by his warlike brother Athelstan, 
Ethelwulf seems to have given up the contest in despair, and leav¬ 
ing the kingdom to the government of his two great advisers, 
—Swithin, bishop of Winchester, and Alstan, bishop of Sher¬ 
borne,—he went on a pilgrimage to Rome, taking his youngest and 
favorite son, Alfred, with him. These pilgrimages were then very 
common among princes and ecclesiastics of the Christian Saxons 
who could afford the expense. They crossed the Alps and Apen¬ 
nines in considerable numbers; and the Popes already began to 
receive a considerable annual revenue from England in the shape 
of tribute and costly presents. Ethelwulf remained in Rome with 
Alfred almost a year. 

§ 4. On his way home Ethelwulf married a young French 
princess (Judith, the daughter of Charles the Bald), and, by insist¬ 
ing on having her crowned, an honor that was refused to Saxon 


44 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book III. 

Ethelwnlf’s offence. His benevolenco. His kingdom divided. 

queens on account of the crimes of Edburga, the wife of 
Brithric, a he so offended liis subjects that they for- 

a o gg gg 7 

sook him, and he was obliged to retire into the east¬ 
ern provinces, leaving the rest of his dominions to his sons. 

§ 5. Ethelwulf died shortly after, and was buried at Winches¬ 
ter. By his first wife, Osburga, who was of the race of Cerdic, he 
left four sons, Ethelbald, Ethelbert, Ethelred, and Alfred, who all 
became kings; also two daughters, one of whom was married to 
Burgred, the tributary king of Mercia. 

§ 6 . Besides many rich presents which he made at Home for 
pious and charitable purposes, Ethelwulf ordered that at least one 
poor person in ten, whether foreigner or native, should be fed and 
clothed at his expense on each of his estates; and he solemnly 
charged his successors on the throne to imitate him. He also gave 
one-tenth of all his lands to the Church, probably for the founda¬ 
tion of monasteries. This grant is often incorrectly spoken of as 
if it were the origin of tithes in England. These, on the contrary, 
had been claimed by Augustin and conceded by Ethelbert and his 
chiefs on the conversion of the Saxons, nearly three centuries before. 

§. 7. A gold enamelled ring, which bears the name of Ethelwulf, 
and which gives a good idea of the state of the arts in the ninth 
century, is preserved in the British museum. 


CHAPTER Y. 

reign of Ethelbald and Ethelbert. [a.d. 858 to 866 .] 

§ 1. Ethelbald and Ethelbert, the two elder sons of Ethelwulf, 
shared his dominions between them, the former possessing Wessex, 
and the latter the other territories. The whole of their reign was 
passed in contending against the Norsemen. The invaders stormed 
Winchester, the capital, ravaged Kent, and wintered yearly in 
Sheppey and Thanet; and though on one occasion they were fol¬ 
lowed to the sea-shore, and deprived of the spoil of Winchester, 
that city had been evidently ruined and rendered an unsafe abode 
by them; for both the kings, when they died, instead of being 
buried there with their ancestors, were interred at the remote mon¬ 
astery of Sherborne. 



f 

Chapter Yl.J THE SAXON ERA. 45 

Ethelbald’s disgrace. Ravages of the Norsemen again. 

§ 2. Ethelbald, who, like Eadbald, a disgraced himself by mar¬ 
rying Judith, his father’s widow, died in 860, and 
Ethelbert in 866. Ecclesiastical and popular dis- ^ 17, P ' 34 ‘ 
pleasure compelled Ethelbald to separate from his step-mother, 
who returned to France, eloped from a convent with Baldwin, 
Count of Flanders, and by him became the mother of Matilda, 
wife of William the Conqueror. The first left no family; his 
brother left a young son, Ethelwald; but he, according to the 
Saxon practice, was set aside in favor of his uncle Ethelred, the 
third son of Ethelwulf. 


CHAPTER YI. 

reign of Ethelred. [a.d. 866 to 871.] 

§ 1. The reign of Ethelred was even more disastrous than the 
preceding ones. The Norsemen, led by Inguar and b ^ ^ 

Hubba, the sons of Ragnar, b whom the Northumbrians ’ P ’ - ’ 
had put to death, landed in large numbers in East Anglia, where 
the people were probably little attached to their rulers from Wes¬ 
sex ; and being by them supplied with horses, they commenced a 
course of horrible devastation. They captured York, and having- 
defeated and killed Ella, whom the people had chosen as their 
leader, established themselves firmly in the city, and thence sent a 
force into Mercia. This force was besieged in vain in Nottingham, 
by the king and his young brother Alfred; but at length a truce 
was agreed on, and the Norsemen withdrew to York, which they 
regarded as their capital. 

§ 2. In the fifth year after their landing [a.d. 870] the Norsemen, 
under Inguar and Hubba, returned to East Anglia, where they de¬ 
feated and put to death the tributary king Edmund, and left his 
headless body in the woods. Both head and body were recovered 
by his friends, and were interred in the place in Suffolk since well 
known as Bury St. Edmund’s. The invaders utterly destroyed the 
noble monasteries of Peterborough, Croyland, Ely, Bardney, and 
many others; while at about the same time Anlaf, the chief of an¬ 
other body from Ireland, devastated the north. The invaders lost 
a great number of men, but they were continually receiving re-en- 



46 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book III. 

Alfred the Great. His Escape, Flight, and Seclusion. 

forcements from the continent. Scandinavia seems to have been 
then, as in later times, a swarming hive. 

§ 8. In the following spring the Norsemen invaded Wessex; and 
though defeated at Englefield, in Berkshire, they gained victories 
soon after at Reading, and Basing, and Merton, in the last of which 
Ethelred received a wound of which he died soon after Easter, 
871, and was buried in Wimbome Minster. As he had met his 
death in battle with idolaters he was esteemed a martyr and a saint, 
as was, for the like reason, Edmund of East Anglia. The name 
of the last is still retained in the Calendar, but the other is not. 


CHAPTER VII. 

reign of Alfred. [a.d. 871 to 901.] 

§ 1. This great prince, the fourth son of Ethelwulf and Osburga, 
was bom at Wantage, in Berkshire, in 849. In his fifth year he was 
sent to Rome, where the Pope is said to have consecrated him as 
king, and two years later his father Ethelwulf took him with him 
on his own journey thither. He assisted his brother Ethelred in his 
wars with the Norsemen, and when he came to the crown he fought 
no less than ten battles with them in one year. But he was unsuc¬ 
cessful, and the different kingdoms that had been united by Egbert 
acted each for itself, and made peace or truce with the invaders. 
Alfred, however, stubbornly maintained the contest in Wessex, and 
was at one time successful against the Norsemen at sea. At another 
time he retook the city of Exeter from them. 

§ 2. The army of the invaders usually remained quiet during the 
winter in some town that they had seized; but in the first days of the 
year 878, Guthrum, their leader, made a sudden march to Chippen¬ 
ham, where Alfred was keeping Christmas, when the king was 
surprised and nearly captured by them. Finding himself utterly 
deserted by his people, he fled for safety to a small island in Som¬ 
ersetshire, since called Athelney, which means the Isle of Nobles. 
There, by degrees, some of his bold warriors gathered around 
him. 

§ 3. nere Alfred remained until the following May, employed 



r 

Chapter VII.] THE SAXON ERA. 47 

Alfred in Disguise. The Danes conquered. Kingdom dismembered. 

in constructing a fortress from which he and a small band of fol¬ 
lowers made frequent assaults on the enemy ; and here, according 
to old chroniclers, he displayed his humility in quietly bearing the 
rebuke of a shepherd’s wife for neglecting her cakes, which she 
told him to watch; also his charity, by dividing his only loaf with 
a beggar. 

§ 4. Meanwhile the Norsemen, under Hubba, had landed in 
Devonshire, but had been defeated and their leader killed, and a 
standard, to which they attributed magical powers, was taken. 1 
This encouraged the people to seek for their king, who was soon 
at the head of an army. Disguised as a minstrel, he visited the 
enemy’s camp and learned all their plans. Finding them dwelling 
carelessly, he attacked and defeated them at Ethandune, in Wilt¬ 
shire ; and following them to their stronghold, he soon compelled 
their whole army to surrender. 

§ 5. Hoping to find an aid in these Norsemen, or Danes, as they 
were generally called, against other enemies, Alfred 
granted to them the old East Anglian kingdom, 11 ^ 15 ’ P ' 23 * 
where they settled as his tributaries, and generally professed them¬ 
selves Christians. Guthrum, their chief, was baptized at once, and 
received the name of Athelstan. 

§ 6. Halfdane, another Norseman, and brother of Hubba, had 
already possessed himself of Northumbria, and other chiefs had 
apportioned Mercia, so that Alfred had little more than Wessex 
left to him. Thus the conquests of Egbert were all lost; and 
England was divided into Wessex, with Mercia as a doubtful 
dependency, and the Danelagh, or the country to the east and 
north, where the new settlers lived as a fierce military aristocracy, 
governed by their own laws. The native inhabitants, as a writer 
of the time tells us, “ long dwelt in captive chains to heathen 
men.” 

§ 7. Even before Guthrum and his men had retired to East 
Anglia, a fresh body of spoilers arrived in the Thames, and for a 
long time they remained in a strong camp at Fulham, plundering 
the adjoining country. At last they withdrew to France. Alfred 
took the best measure in his power to hinder their return by build- 


i This was a small triangular flag, of blood-red color, on which a black raven had 
been worked by the three daughters of Ragnar Lodbrok, one of the earliest of the 
rovers who visited Britain. The bird was believed to flutter its wings or to hang them 
down on the eve of a battle, and thus to indicate victory or defeat. 








48 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book III. 

Alfred’s wise measures. His Learning, Patriotism, and Piety. 

ing a fleet, with which he cruised about in the English Channel 
and captured many of their ships. 

§ 8. The Norsemen, having ravaged France, returned to England 
in 885, and being joined by their countrymen from East Anglia, 
who could be bound by no oaths or promises, and were called by 
the old writers “ truce-breakers,” they besieged Rochester. Alfred 
drove them beyond sea again, and captured sixteen of their ships. 
Although his fleet was soon afterwards defeated by the East 
Anglians, he strengthened it, and thus was able to hinder any other 
invasion or war for nearly eight years. 

§ 9. This interval of peace was most judiciously employed by 
Alfred. His first care was to repair the ruined cities and 
churches; his next to draw up a code of laws, and to improve the 
administration of justice. Then, to provide for the better defence 
of the country, he organized something like the present militia, by 
which every freeman was obliged to appear in arms when called 
on, and a select body of guards was kept constantly on foot. 
This was the first standing army maintained in England. 

§ 10. But these were not the only matters that engaged the 
attention of Alfred. Unlike his elder brothers, he had been in¬ 
duced to leam to read, in order to acquire a beautiful book which 
his mother showed to him ; and his thirst for knowledge being 
thus awakened, he neglected no opportunity of improvement. 
Asser, a Briton and monk, and constant companion of the king ; 
John, from Ireland; Grimbald, from France, and other learned 
men, were bountifully maintained at his court; and when near 
his fortieth year he acquired the Latin language, from which he 
translated several works on religion or philosophy. 

§ 11. By his example Alfred revived the taste for learning 
among his subjects, which had greatly decayed in consequence of 
the wars; and he established schools in many places, though he 
did not found the University of Oxford, which he is sometimes 
said to have done. He evinced, too, his gratitude for his deliver¬ 
ance from his enemies by founding the monasteries of Athelney 
and Shaftesbury; also his charity by sending relief to needy 
scholars in Ireland, Scotland, Wales, and France, as well as to the 
Christians in the East Indies. 

§ 12. But the calamities of Alfred’s reign were not yet over. In 
the year 893 the Norsemen, who had experienced some severe 
defeats in France, again visited England in great force under 


Chapter VII.] THE SAXON ERA. 49 

Alfred’s success against Invaders. Peace and its Results. 

Hasting, a skilful leader, a sort of Scandinavian Hannibal. ' One 
body landed in Romney Marsh, and built a fort at Appledore, 
while another fixed its quarters at Milton, near the Isle of Sheppey. 
This new war lasted four years, and extended to every part of 
England. 

§ 13. The settlers joined the invaders, and whilst those from 
Northumbria attacked Devonshire, those from Kent passed through 
Essex across the country as far as Shropshire. Alfred, however, 
dealt vigorously and successfully with them. Those in Shrop¬ 
shire were besieged in their camp, and obliged to surrender 
after starvation had compelled them to eat their horses. Those 
who had ascended the Lea had them ships left dry by the river 
being cut into the several channels that are now to be seen about 
Ware and Hertford; and the wife and sons of Hasting were made 
prisoners, but were set at liberty by Alfred. At last, in 897, 
after the greater part of their shipping had been destroyed, the 
main body laid down their arms and retired to East Anglia or 
Northumbria. 

§ 14. Some, however, went to their countrymen in France, and, 
procuring fresh ships and arms, returned in small bodies and 
plundered the southern coasts. Alfred built swift vessels and 
went in pursuit of them ; and regarding them no longer as public 
enemies but as pirates, he hanged all the prisoners that he made, 
which soon brought the war to a close. 

§ 15. For the brief remainder of his reign Alfred lived undis¬ 
turbed, and carried on his valuable labors for the improvement 
of his people. Nothing was too great or too small to engage his 
attention if benefit could be derived from it. He invented horn 
lanterns to shield the tapers, which served for clocks, from the 
wind; he taught his subjects improved modes of building both 
houses and ships, and procured the most skilful mariners and 
hunters and workers in metals to settle among them. An interest¬ 
ing specimen of the personal decorations of his time, known as 
Alfred’s jewel, was found near his retreat of Athelney, and is now 
preserved at Oxford. 1 * 3 

§ 16. At length Alfred’s health, which through his whole life 

1 It is an ornament of gold of oval form, evidently intended as a pendant. It was 
well wrought and skilfully ornamented.. In the centre is a rudely engraved outline 
of a human figure (feminine) holding flowers, and around it is the inscription, AELFRED 

Mi IIAF.T GEWERkan— Alfred had me wrought. 

3 


50 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 


[Book III. 


Alfred’s Family. His Laws. Troubles of his Successor. 

liad been very delicate, gave way entirely under his toils. He died 
on the 2Gth of October, 901, and was buried at Winchester, in the 
new minster, which he had founded. 

§ 17. Alfred married, in 868, Elswitha, the daughter of Ethel- 
red, an East Anglian noble. Among their children were Edward, 
who succeeded his father on the throne ; Ethelfleda, who married 
Ethelred, the tributary king of Mercia, who after her husband’s 
death greatly assisted her brother’s operations against the Norse¬ 
men ; Elfrida, the wife of Baldwin, Count of Flanders; and 
Ethelgina, who was abbess of the nunnery at Shaftesbury, founded 
by her father. 

§ 18. Writers are unanimous in the praise of Alfred, but in 
their admiration many ascribe to him matters that really belong to 
his predecessors. His laws, he himself says, are only a selection of 
what was current before his time, and they make no mention of 
trial by jury, which is usually attributed to him. On the other 
hand he may justly be considered the founder of the militia 
system of Great Britain, and also of that invaluable safeguard to 
its shores, the royal navy. 


CHAPTER Yin. 

reign of Edward the elder. [a.d. 901 to 925.] 

§ 1. Edward was thirty years of age when he became king, and 
had had experience in war during his father’s lifetime. His suc¬ 
cession was opposed by his cousin Ethelwald, a son of Ethelbald, 

„ „ Alfred’s elder brother,* 1 who, as already mentioned, b 

si ^ 5^ p« 44« # 

had been set aside on the death of his father, on ac- 

i) c 2 p 45 

count of his youth, and who had been educated by 
Alfred. The people of Wessex refused to allow his claim, on 
which he retired among the Norsemen in Northumbria. 

§ 2. These gladly took advantage of the death of the great 
king to renew their ravages. In this they were assisted by Ethel¬ 
wald. A body of them penetrated into Kent, but were there de¬ 
feated by Edward. Ethelwald then passed into Essex, and with 
his allies ravaged Mercia; but while they were thus employed Ed- 



THE SAXON ERA. 


51 


Chapter VIII.] 

Ravages of Norsemen. Ethelfred’s Conquests. 

ward burst into the fen country between the Ouse and the sea, and 
desolated it. A great battle ensued, in which Ethelwald was 
killed [905], as well as Eric, the chief of the Norsemen ; but the 
horde of plunderers was still so powerful that Edward, from ne¬ 
cessity, made a truce with them [a.d. 906], which left them in un¬ 
disturbed possession of all their spoil and all their conquests. 
Edward was a politic prince, and he took steps which in the end 
reduced the greater part of- the invaders to obedience. His plan 
was, as soon as he had recovered strength, to move slowly but 
steadily against them, and to erect fortresses at each favorable 
spot to secure his conquests. Ethelfleda, his sister, and widow 
of the Earl of Mercia, in whom Alfred’s spirit seemed to survive, 
ably seconded him J>y rebuilding Chester, and establishing forts 
at Stafford, Tam worth, and Warwick, and other places in 
Mercia. 

§ 3. In the fourth year of the truce [a.d. 910] Edward sent a 
force which remained for five weeks in the Danelagh, ravaging 
everything, and which totally defeated the Norsemen at Tetten- 
hall, in Staffordshire. In the next year he obtained possession of 
London, and thence he marched into the counties of Essex and 
Hertford, where he built castles at Witham, Maldon, Ware, and 
Hertford, which commanded the course of the rivers, and prevent¬ 
ed the ravages of pirates from the sea. 

§ 4. The Britons of Powys (Central Wales) had allied them¬ 
selves with the Norsemen, but they were defeated by Ethelfleda in 
a battle at Brecknock. Leicester and York were soon afterward 
surrendered to her by treaty. Edward captured in succession all 
the Danish strongholds called the Five Burghs, and then turning 
southward, took Bedford and Towcester, and strengthened them 
with stone walls, as was the habit of his father. The Norsemen 
now began to treat with him ; and while the great body swore to 
be his subjects, the chief, Thurkytel, and the more warlike, with¬ 
drew to France. 

§ 5. In 922 Ethelfleda died, and Mercia was incorporated with 
Edward’s dominions. He then advanced into Northumbria, 
building by the way forts at Thelwall and Manchester, as well as 
at Nottingham and in the Peak of Derby. To retard his march, 
Regnold, a Norseman, seized York, but he was soon obliged to 
surrender, and Edward was [a.d. 924] acknowledged as “father 
and lord,” not only by the Norsemen, but by the Britons in North 


52 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book III. 

Edward acknowledged King of the whole Country. 

Wales and in Cumberland, and by tlie Scots south of the Clyde. 
This fact gave rise to the claim of superiority over Scotland which 
was put forward by Henry the Second, Edward the First, and 
other kings in later days. The primitive foundation of the British 

monarchy was now laid. Hitherto the imperial title 

„ § 2, p. 31. of Britwal d a a carried with it very little of imperial 
power, for tributary rulers were- not dutiful subjects. And 
Edward was by no means an imperial ruler, for the king formed 
only a co-ordinate branch of the government in which the people 
took part, in a representative assembly composed of bishops and 
nobles. 

§ 6 . Thus triumphant, and ruling a far larger extent of country 
than the great Alfred, Edward died in 925, and was buried at 
Winchester by the side of his father. His soS Athelstan succeed¬ 
ed. Edward left two other sons, who also became kings, and 
several daughters, most of whom were married to foreign princes. 
Among them may be mentioned Egina, the wife of Charles the 
Fourth of France; Ethilda, the wife of Hugh, Count of Paris, 
from whom sprang the Capetian line, which ruled France, under 
various appellations, until the flight of Louis Pliilippe in 1848; 
Edith, the wife of the emperor Otho the Great; and Thyra, the 
wife of Gormo, king of Denmark, and grandmother of Sweyh, 
the father of Canute. 


CHAPTER IX. 

reign of Athelstan. [a.d. 925 to 940.] 

§ 1. Athelstan, the eldest son of Edward, steadily pursued his 
father’s policy. He gave his sister Edith to Sihtric, the Norseman 
or Danish prince who ruled Northumbria, on condition of his 
becoming a Christian; but as he neglected to do so, and treated 
his young wife harshly, her brother attacked and killed him, and 
reduced his dominions. Then Eadulf of Bamborougli, a Norse¬ 
man, as well as Constantine, king of the Scots, and the kings of 
Cornwall and Gwent (Monmouthshire), made a formal submission 
to Athelstan at a place called Eamot. Edith retired to a nunnery 
at Tamworth, where she lived many years, and was esteemed a 



THE SAXON ERA. 


53 


Chapter IX] 

The Career of Athelstan. 


A Terrible Battle. 


saint; but the sons of Sihtric, who were her -step-children, retired 
to Ireland. 

§ 2. The marriages of his sisters with so many foreign princes 
naturally connected Athelstan with the affairs of the continent, 
and he gave a refuge to his nephew, Louis the Fourth of France, 
who from his long stay in England acquired in France the surname 
of the Foreigner. Athelstan was liberal in endowing monasteries, 
and made laws which favored commerce. He was strict in his 
administration of justice against thieves, but caused the death of 
his brother Edwin, it is believed, who, on a false charge of con¬ 
spiracy against him, was sent to sea, it is said, in a crazy boat and 
left to perish. The charge is made upon slight evidence. 

§ 3. The States above mentioned w r hich had been subdued did 
not adhere to their agreement, and in 933 Athelstan ravaged the 
south of Scotland with a fleet and army. He also imposed a 
tribute of threescore and three pounds in money, besides a number 
of horses, hawks, and dogs, on the kings of North Wales. But 
this did not prevent a formidable rising against him, which he 
had great difficulty in crushing. 

§ 4. Anlaf, the son of Sihtric, a Norwegian prince, who had 
become the head of the Ostrnen in Ireland, a leagued 

a § 9, p. 41. 

himself with Constantine, the king of the Scots, and 
prepared to recover Northumbria. He collected a large army in 
Irel an d [a.d. 937], and being joined by the Scots, landed on the 
Humber. Athelstan marched against them, accompanied by his 
brother Edmund, but no battle was fought until they had reached 
the extremity of Northumbria. 

§ 5. There, at' a place called Brunanburg, the Norsemen and 
the Scots had fortified themselves, after the Scandinavian fashion, 
■with a strong stockade of timber within a deep trench, and when 
attacked by the Saxons a most desperate contest ensued. The 
trench was passed, the “board-wall” was cleft, and after a day’s 
fighting the allies were put to flight. Five kings and seven earls 
lay dead on the field, besides an innumerable host of their men. 
Anlaf escaped; but the chronicler who celebrates this great victory 
in verse, says the carnage was as great as had ever been on the 
island since the coming of the Angles and Saxons. The victors 
pursued the “loathed nations” throughout the night, and the 
Mercians, who were supposed to be in their favor, showed them¬ 
selves as fierce as the West Saxons. The fugitives fled north of 


54 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 


[Book HI. 

Athelstan Supreme Ruler. Edmund’s Career. His Cruelty. 

the friths, and Anlaf escaped with a few followers to Ireland, 
greatly dispirited. 

§ 6. Athelstan next turned his aims against the West Welsh. 
He captured Exeter, which he fortified, and passing entirely 
through Cornwall, subdued the Scilly Isles. a In token 
* ’ p ‘ of his victory, and in accordance with a vow in the 
event of his success, he rebuilt the church of St. Burian near 
the Land’s End, and bestowed certain privileges on it which it 
retains to the present day. After this no one seems to have dared 
to raise arms against him in any part of the island. Athelstan 
died in 940, at Gloucester, and was buried at Wimborne Minster. 
He was never married, and he was succeeded by his half-brother 
Edmund, his fellow-soldier at Brunanburg. 


CHAPTER X. 

reign of Edmund the First, [a.d. 940 to 946.] 

§ 1. The reign of Edmund was occupied much as that of .his 
brother had been. Anlaf, recalled by the Danes from Ireland, 
was chosen by the Northumbrians as their king, and he was at first 
so successful in his war with Edmund as to capture Tamworth, 
then the chief town of Mercia. The king, however, retook it, and 
besieged Anlaf in Leicester, when the latter, consenting to be bap¬ 
tized, had his kingdom confirmed to him. Regnold of York 
also submitted, when Edmund, free from his hostility, again 
turned his arms against Anlaf, put him to flight, and appointed 
another ruler. 

§ 2. Edmund next expelled the inhabitants of the Five 
Burghs, b and having peopled these towns with Sax- 
§ 4, p. 51. Qng ^ marched against the Norsemen in Cumberland. 
He conquered them, expelled their King, Dunmail, and granted 
the province to Malcolm, King of Scotland, who promised to be 
his ally both by sea and by land. He barbarously deprived the 
two sons of Dunmail of their eyes, and then returned homeward. 
The king did not long survive this atrocious act. He was killed 
soon afterward in his own hall, at Pucklechurch, in Gloucestershire, 
by an outlaw named Leofa. 



THE SAXON ERA. 


55 


Cn AFTER XT.] 


Edwin’s -violent Death. Treachery of Northumbrians, and Intrigue. 

§ 8. He was holding a banquet in honor of St. Augustin, the 
converter of the nation, and seeing Leofa among the guests, 
ordered him to be expelled. The outlaw persisted in remaining, 
when Edmund seized him by the hair and threw him on the 
ground, but was himself stabbed by Leofa, and expired on the 
spot. He died on the 26th of May, 946, and was buried at Glas¬ 
tonbury, where a monastery had been established by Dunstan, his 
chaplain. Edmund showed such a determined and practical taste 
for elegance and improvement, that he has been called “ the mag¬ 
nificent.” His brother Edred succeeded him, as his two sons, Edwy 
and Edgar, were children. Their mother’s name was Elgiva, and 
she became a nun on her husband’s death. 


CHAPTER XT. 

reign of Edred. [a.d. 946 to 955.] 

§ 1. The Northumbrians rose in insurrection on the death of 
Edmund; but Edred marched against them, and extorted a fresh 
submission. This took place at Topcliffe, in Yorkshire, to which 
place Wulstan, the Archbishop of York, and all the chief men 
repaired, and pledged themselves by oaths to be Edred’s faithful 
subjects. But he had scarcely left their country when they chose 
Eric, the brother of the King of Denmark, for their ruler, and a 
new war ensued, in which the great church of Ripon was burnt. 

§ 2. Edred soon reduced them to another temporary submission, 
and Eric was abandoned. They were not, however, to be recon¬ 
ciled to the sway of the southern king, and they speedily again chose 
Anlaf, the Norwegian,* for their ruler; and though a ^ ^ ^ 
they expelled him in a short time, it was only to re¬ 
call the greater Eric. Much of this confusion was caused by the 
intrigues of Wulstan, and in consequence Edred seized and im¬ 
prisoned him ; after which the Northumbrians again expelled Eric, 
and submitted. The archbishop was restored to them after a two 
years’ confinement; but, to mark their reduction to the condition 
of subjects, their rulers for the future, though almost independent, 
had no longer the title of kings; they were called only dukes, or 
counts, or earls. 



56 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 


The famous Dunstan Prime Minister. 


[Book III. 

Edred’s character. 


§ 3. Whilst Edred pursued these wars, which endured for nearly 
the whole of his reign, he left the government of the State mainly 
in the hands of the abbot Dunstan, who labored earnestly to bring 
about a change in the religious affairs of the land. This was to 
substitute monks for the married or secular clergy, who, like the 
canons and prebendaries of the Anglican Church of the present 
day, were attached to the different cathedrals. He also labored 
earnestly for the firm establishment of the Pope’s supremacy in 
Great Britain. The Roman pontiff at that time assumed the right 
to exercise spiritual dominion over all the earth as the infallible 
vicegerent of God. 

§ 4. Dunstan was the nephew of Athelm, a former Archbishop of 
Canterbury, and had been educated for the Church; but visiting 
the court of Athelstan, he there became a royal favorite, and re¬ 
linquished his intention. He was skilled in music and painting, 
and many other arts; but he met with rivals, who accused him of 
magic, and he was driven from the court. He now passed over to 
Fleury, where there was a famous Benedictine monastery, and 
joined the order. After a time he returned to England, became 
„ . „. chaplain to Edmund, a the brother Of Athelstan, and in- 

® o p* 54, __ _ 

duced that prince to found a monastery at Glaston- 
bury on the model of that at Fleury, on the Continent, and to 
place him at its head. 

§ 5. Here Dunstan remained a while, training up future abbots 
and bishops, and gaining applause for his austere religious life; but 
Edred, who was the brother of Edmund, drew him from his re¬ 
treat, and made him in effect his chief minister. He soon procured 
the foundation of a second monastery at Abingdon, over which he 
placed Ethelwold, one of the monks from Glastonbury, who 
labored incessantly to render his community a model in music and 
singing, the performance of public worship, and rigid sanctity of 
life. 

§ 6. Whilst Dunstan was thus high in power, his plan for spread¬ 
ing Benedictine monasteries far and wide received a sudden check 
by the death of his royal patron. Edred, who from boyhood had 
suffered from disease and was puny in body, died at Frome on 
the 23d of November, 955, and was buried at Winchester. He 
was called by the surname of Edred the Weak-footed. He had no 
child to inherit his title, and his eldest nephew, Edwy, succeeded 
him. 


CHAPTER XII.] 


THE SAXON ERA. 

Edwy the Fair outraged by Prelates. 


57 


CHAPTER XII. 

reign of Edwy. [a.d. 955 to 958.] 

§ 1. Edwy, when he became king, was a gay, thoughtless, hand¬ 
some youth of only fifteen, and was called “Edwy the Fair.” He 
at once married a princess named Elgiva, although she was very 
nearly related to him, in spite of the remonstrances of Odo, a Dane, 
who was the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dunstan, and other coun¬ 
sellors. He was crowned at Kingston by the archbishop, but gave 
great offence to his nobles by withdrawing from the banquet that 
followed, disgusted with the coarse carousals. They despatched 
Dunstan and Cynesius, Bishop of Lichfield, to request his return; 
and the messengers, finding him unwilling to comply, dragged him 
from the side of his young wife and brought him back almost by 
force. And while in her chamber, the insolent monk, flushed with 
wine, assailed the queen and her mother with brutal language. 

§ 2. Edwy was stung by the outrage. A quarrel was thus com¬ 
menced which only ended with the king’s life. Dunstan with¬ 
drew to Glastonbury; but being then called on to account for the 
treasure that had passed through his hands in the reign of Edred, 
for the establishment of the monasteries, and unable to produce 
vouchers, he found his solemn declaration that all had been duly 
expended disregarded. He felt that his ruin was impending; and 
escaping from a party sent to seize him and put out his eyes, he 
retired to Flanders, where he was protected by the Count, who was 
a grandson of King Alfred. The king now seized on the pro¬ 
perty of the new monasteries, and placed them in charge of clergy 
who claimed the right to have wives, like other men. The nobles, 
whose messenger Dunstan had been, espoused his cause. Finding 
that Edwy would not listen to them, they took up arms, and de¬ 
clared his young brother, Edgar, their king. After a brief strug¬ 
gle Edwy was deprived of Mercia and Northumbria ; but by the 
mediation of Odo, who stirred up the revolt, he was allowed to 
retain Wessex. 

§ 3. The archbishop now formally declared the marriage of 
Edwy with Elgiva unlawful and invalid ; and as Edwy refused to 
separate from her, Odo had her seized, branded in the face with 
red-hot iron to spoil her beauty, and carried over to Ireland as a 


5S 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 


[Book III. 



Edgar’s Arrogance. 


Dunstan. 


slave. The king, in revenge, plundered the churches; but the 
people of Wessex took up arms against him, and he soon became a 
fugitive. Elgiva, who had escaped from Ireland, returning to 
join him, fell into the hands of some of the partisans of Dunstan 
and Odo, who put her to death by cruel tortures. 

§ 4. The unhappy young king did not long survive the loss 
of Elgiva. He died on the first of October, 958, after a merely 
nominal reign of less than three years; but whether his death was 
occasioned by violence or not is uncertain. His brother Edgar 
succeeded him. 


CHAPTER XIH. 


BEiGN of Edgar. [a.d. 958 to 975.] 


§ 1. The accession of Edgar, a boy only fifteen years of age 
[a.d. 957], was immediately followed by the return of the abbot 
Dunstan, who became his minister, and he and the monks 
managed the kingdom. His reign was distinguished by its 
peaceable, orderly character, and the king received the name of the 
Pacific. He engaged in no wars; but he kept up a strong fleet, 
with which he every year made the circuit of his dominions, and 
thus prevented the invasions of the Norsemen. Eight petty kings 
paid homage to him, and on one occasion even rowed his barge 
that bore him on the Dee to the monastery of St. John at Chester, he 
himself acting as steersman. He styled himself monarch of Albion. 

§ 2. On the first occasion that offered, Dunstan made himself a 
bishop. He took the see of Worcester in 957, and that of London 
in 958; and in 960 he was translated to Canterbury as Archbishop 
or Primate of the Church. In this high station he was enabled to 
carry forward the work that the death of King Edred had inter¬ 
rupted. The monasteries that had been plundered were restored. 
Ely and Peterborough, which had been destroyed by the Norse¬ 
men, were rebuilt, and forty-eight more were founded by the king, 
besides others by his subjects. Ethelwold, the abbot of Abingdon, 
became Bishop of Winchester; and Oswald, the nephew of Arch¬ 
bishop Odo, was made Bishop of Worcester and afterwards Arch¬ 
bishop of York. 







THE SAXON ERA. 


59 


Chatter XIII.] 

The married Clergy persecuted. 


Trickery of Monks. 


§ 3. Occupied as Dunstan was with the civil affairs of the State,, 
his work of displacing the married clergy was mainly carried on 
by these two bishops; and so earnestly and successfully did they 
do the will of the fiery primate, that Ethelwold is known as “ the 
father of monks,” and “ Oswald's law ” became a term for the con¬ 
version of a chapter into a monastery. One instance will show 
how this unrighteousness was accomplished. 

§ 4. Oswald, as soon as he was appointed Bishop of Worcester, 
assembled the canons, or resident married clergy, and urged on 
them the duty of becoming monks of the order of St. Benedict, 
which would involve the surrender of all their property, and sepa¬ 
ration from their families. This they resolutely refused; and when 
he threatened to expel them they sought the protection of powerful 
friends, and he was obliged to give way. But the bishop was far 
from abandoning his design. He procured funds from the pliant 
and profligate king, and erected a monastry adjoining the cathe¬ 
dral, in which he planted a number of monks, some Saxon, but 
mostly French, who sang, and preached, and prayed, and made 
gorgeous processions, and gave alms, and led an austere life. The 
consequence was, that the church of the monastery was continually 
crowded with the dazzled, while the cathedral was half deserted. 
And as every worshipper was compelled to bring an offering, how¬ 
ever small, to the altar, the chapter suffered greatly in purse as well 
as in public estimation. 

§ 5. In the course of a year a few of the secular clergy began to 
yield to the pressure of necessity, and wives and children were 
abandoned at the bidding of arrogant ecclesiastics, who wielded 
the temporal power of the State. At this crisis [a.d. 961] a pesti¬ 
lence swept over the land. The prelates and monks declared it to 
be a warning of greater evils unless the married clergy should 
yield. The king called councils of nobles to urge the measure. 
At one of these, held at Winchester, the friends of the clergy were 
so numerous that the king wavered, and was about to dissolve the 
meeting, when Dunstan resorted to a clever trick. A peculiar sound 
was heard. The Primate declared that a crucifix on the wall spoke 
to him, “ God forbid it to be done ! ” The awe-struck nobles for¬ 
sook the married clergy, and those who refused to become monks 
were driven from their places. 

§ 6. The reign of Edgar, which lasted sixteen years, presents few 
incidents in common with those of his predecessors. * He made 


60 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 


[Book III. 

Edgar’s Career and Character. His Death. His Family. 

stately journeys yearly through every part of liis dominions, in 
which he looked strictly to the administration of justice. His 
great assemblies made many laws for the protection of the property 
of the Church; and he encouraged commerce by affording substan¬ 
tial protection to traders. Of this he gave a memorable instance 
in the year 968, when he ravaged the Isle of Thanet, because some 
Norseman merchants from York had been ill-treated there. 

§ 7. The personal conduct of Edgar was very bad. Although 
he was liberal to the Church, and in public matters suffered him¬ 
self to be guided by Dunstan, in his private life he neglected all 
his admonitions, and was licentious and cruel. He carried away 
nuns by force from the convents, and murdered one of his nobles 
in order to marry his wife. For these crimes Dunstan forbade him 
to wear his bawble, the crown, on his head for the space of seven 
years, and to fast; but not a word was said about restitution and 
repentance, His treatment of his vassal kings also was overbear¬ 
ing and haughty, as alreadv mentioned. 4 When he 

8 ’ P ’ ' imposed a tribute of wolves’ heads on the Welsh 
princes instead of money, it was probably more to show that he 
did not need their property, than with the enlightened view that 
has been ascribed to him, of extirpating the wolves, which was not 
accomplished for ages after his time. 

§ 8. Edgar, when very young, married Ethelfleda, who died 
soon after, leaving him two sons, the eldest named Edward; and 
he afterwards married Elfrida, the widow of his murdered noble, 
Ethelwold, just mentioned, who became the mother of Ethelred. 
Edgar died in the thirty-second year of his age [July 8, 975], and 
was buried, not with former kings at Winchester, but at Glaston¬ 
bury, the favorite retreat of his adviser, Dunstan. His son Edward 
succeeded him. 


CHAPTER XIY. 

DEIGN OF EDWAED THE SECOND, THE MARTYR. [A.D. 975 TO 979.] 

§ 1. The orderly government that Dunstan had established seems 
to have fallen to pieces on the death of Edgar. Both his sons 
by Ethelfleda were young; and Elfrida, his widow, endeavored to 



Chapter XIV.] 


THE SAXON ERA. 


61 


Dunstan’m Monks Expelled. Public Discontent Edward murdered. 

secure the throne for her own child in preference to Edward, the 
elder born. Dunstan succeeded in placing Edward on the throne, 
but, as he had no longer the active support of a king, much that 
he had done to establish monasteries was promptly undone. The 
monks were driven out, and the canons or secular clergy were 
restored; but each body had its partisans, and their fierce disputes 
reduced the country to a state of anarchy, which prepared the 
way for the miseries of the next reign. These religious contests, 
always selfish because they were for personal power, and not for 
an idea, were very bitter. 

§ 2. The Norsemen settlers were greatly irritated by seeing one 
of their number, Oslac, the earl of Northumbria, driven into exile, 
and they seem to have encouraged the sea-rovers to renew their 
depredations. A famine occurred, which the monks represented 
as a judgment on their oppressors. A council was held at Caine 
in consequence, where the secular clergy, by the aid of Beornhelm, 
a Scottish bishop, pressed hard upon Dunstan, and he was only saved 
from a formal defeat by an accident. The floor of the chamber on 
which his adversaries stood gave way, and many were killed and 
wounded, whilst he escaped unhurt by clinging to a beam. This 
was looked on as an interposition of Providence in his favor, and 
secured him from further opposition. But the disorders of the 
State soon called off attention from the affairs of the Church, and 
the plans of Dunstan were never fully carried out. They were 
partially executed afterward. 

§ 3. In the fourth year of his reign, the young king, being out 
hunting in the neighborhood of Corfe Castle, where his step-moth¬ 
er Elfrida resided, paid her a visit unattended. She received him 
with apparent joy, but by her direction one of her attendants 
stabbed him in the back as he sat on horseback drinking the part¬ 
ing cup at her gate. The youth attempted to rejoin his compan¬ 
ions, but falling from his horse he was dragged along the ground 
until he died. That event occurred on the 18th of March, 979, 
when his half-brother Ethelred succeeded him. Edward’s body 
was at first buried secretly at Wareham, but was afterwards re¬ 
moved to Shaftesbury, where it was interred with royal pomp. 
The sufferer was esteemed a martyr, and the superstitious people, 
made to believe that miracles were wrought by his remains, 
visited his tomb in great numbers, and made offerings to the monks 
in attendance. 


62 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 


Dunstan's Prophecy. 


[Book III. 

jitnelred’s Tyranny. 


CHAPTER XV. 


mSIGN OF ETHELRED THE SECOND. [A.D. 979 TO 1016.] 

§ 1. The reign of Ethelred was longer and more calamitous 
than that of any of his predecessors. He was but in his eleventh 
year when he became king, and Dunstan, who crowned him, 
predicted, it is said, the evils that afterwards befell the land. 

“ Thus saith the Lord,” he cried, “ The sword shall never depart 
from your house, but shall rage against you all the days of your 
life, slaying your offspring; until your kingdom is transferred to 
another family.” 

§ 2. The prophecy, as it was esteemed, of Dunstan soon began 
to receive its fulfilment. The great fleet that his vigilance had 
maintained under Edgar, had apparently been dispersed by the 
advisers of Edward, and the Norsemen at once recommenced 
their ravages. Southampton and the Isle of Thanet first felt the 
scourge ; then Cheshire was devastated; next the Cornish and 
Welsh coasts were visited, and a celebrated monastery at Padstow 
was destroyed; and so low had the naval power of the State 
fallen from the 3,600 ships that Edgar is said to have maintained, 
that “ three ships of pirates ” were strong enough to desolate the 
whole Isle of Portland. 

§ 8. In the midst of these calamities the young king showed his 
tyrannical nature by laying waste the lands of Elfstan, the Bishop 
of Rochester, against whom he had conceived offence. Dunstan 
adjured him to desist, but he would not listen to the Primate un¬ 
til he had received a bribe of a hundred pounds of silver. Dun¬ 
stan sent the money, but accompanied it by a repetition of his 
declaration that evil days were coming, though he should not live 
to see many of them. 

§ 4. This was, indeed, Dunstan's last public act, as he died very 
soon afterwards at the age of seventy, leaving a name that has suf¬ 
fered as much from the indiscriminate praise of his friends as from 
the attacks of his enemies. Judging him by the age in which he 
lived, he was undoubtedly a great and wise man. Miracles were 
ascribed to him, and the Pope canonized him as a saint. 

§ 5. The ravages of the Norsemen were so furiously carried on, 
that the king and his councillors lost all heart; and in the year 991 


ClIAPTElt XV.] 


THE SAXON ERA. 


63 


EthelrecTs Cruelty. Invasion of Norsemen. Tribute. 

a tribute of £10,000 ($50,000) was paid to them by the advice of 
Siricius, a successor of Dunstan in the see of Canterbury, but no 
inheritor of his spiiit. In the following year a fleet was fitted out. 
The command of it was given to Elf lie, the son of a duke of Mercia 
who had been banished, and who now took vengeance by deserting 
to the enemy. The weak and cruel Ethelred ordered the eyes of 
the deserter’s son to be put out; but in after years he again in¬ 
trusted Elfric with an army, when he again became a traitor. 
But unfortunately he was far from being the only one; indeed, 
the incapable monarch seems hardly to have had one really trust¬ 
worthy adherent. 

§ 6. Fresh bodies of the Norsemen assailed Northumbria and 
East Anglia, and as the troops raised against them were mainly of 
the same race, no effectual resistance was offered. Bamborough, 
the great stronghold of Northumbria, was stormed, and the coun¬ 
try permanently occupied. Then followed a still more formidable 
attack by Sweyn and Olave, or Anlaf, two Norwegian kings, who 
ravaged Kent and the southern coast, and took up their winter 
quarters at Southampton, in 994. The former expedient of paying 
a tribute was resorted to, and the invaders at last withdrew on 
receiving the sum of £16,000, or $80,000. Olave, who had be¬ 
come a Christian, took an oath never more to come in hostile man¬ 
ner against England, and he kept his word; but Sweyn returned 
in after years. 

§ 7. There would seem to have been a period of tranquillity from 
this time up to the year 997; but after that the Norsemen renewed 
their ravages, and never desisted from them until they had seated 
Canute, the son of Sweyn, on the throne. They burnt the mon¬ 
astery of Tavistock; settled themselves in the Isle of Wight; 
gained victories wherever they fought, and at last neither fleet nor 
army durst meet them. A fresh tribute of £24,000 ($120,000) 
was paid to them in 1002, and a peace concluded; but this 
was soon broken by Ethelred, who with equal cruelty and folly 
ordered a treacherous massacre of a body-guard of Norsemen 
which he had taken into his pay, and who, he was informed, 
had a design on his life. The butchery was fixed for St. Brice’s 
day (Nov. 13) in that year, as the Norsemen, even if not Chris¬ 
tians, usually laid aside their arms and visited the churches on 
festival days. 

§ 8. The people had suffered much from the insolence and 


64 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 


[Book III. 

Butchery of Norsemen. Coalition. Ravages by Sweyn. 

rapacity of these mercenaries, and they even exceeded the orders 
of Ethelred. They dragged many of them from a refuge that 
they had sought in a church outside the wall of London, which is 
still known as St, Clement Danes, and put them to death, and 
even more barbarously murdered women and children. Among 
the sufferers was Gunhilda, the sister of Sweyn, who had married 
a Saxon noble, and was in general highly esteemed as a media¬ 
trix between her countrymen and the people. Her sons were put 
to death before her face, and she was then beheaded, declaring 
with her last breath, that God would not suffer her blood to flow 
unavenged. 

§ 9. Such was soon seen to be the case. Ethelred had just be¬ 
fore endeavored to strengthen himself by marrying Emma, the sis¬ 
ter of Richard, Duke of Normandy, with whom he had lately been 
hostile, probably hoping for that prince’s assistance in case of an 
invasion; but the event was precisely the reverse. The Normans 
were of the same blood as the Norsemen; and although settled for 
a century in France, looked on them as their countrymen, whose 
cause they were bound to favor. Hence many of them who came 
over with the new queen, and were put in places of trust, regarded 
Sweyn, and not Ethelred, as their king. 

§ 10. Early the following year [a.d. 1003] Sweyn appeared on 
the west coast of England with a powerful fleet and army, breath¬ 
ing vengeance and ravaging with fire and sword. The flag-ship of 
the Norwegian was in the form of an enormous serpent, and was 
called “ The Great Dragon.” Exeter, a strong city that had in 
former years successfully resisted him, was betrayed to him by 
Hugo, a Norman, who governed it for Queen Emma, and it was 
entirely ruined; Salisbury and Wilton were sacked; Norwich and 
Thetford were burnt, and Ulfkytel and all the chief men of East 
Anglia were cut off in a terrible battle. At last, in the year 1004, 
the great famine,” the natural consequence of their ravages, 
obliged the invaders to withdraw for a time. 

§ 11. In 1006 Sweyn again landed at Sandwich, and ravaged 
Kent. Then making the Isle of Wight a his winter 
a § 9, p. 2. (iuarterS) his plundering parties spread far and wide, 
in a manner that showed their contempt for any force that might 
be brought against them. Ethelred fled to the remote district of 
Shropshire, and there summoned his council to devise “some 
means by which the land might be saved before it was utterly de- 


Chapter XY.] THE SAXON ERA. , b& 

Treachery and Piracy. Ravages by Pirates. Svveyn King. 

stroyed.” Their deliberations had the usual result, and peace was 
again purchased by a tribute of £36,000, or $180,000. 

§ 12. This was in 1007, about which time the government of 
Mercia was committed to Edric Streona, great-uncle of Earl God¬ 
win, the father of King Harold, and a descendant of the old royal 
family of the South Saxons, who had married Ethelred’s daughter, 
but is accused of most treacherous conduct towards him. That 
and the following year were passed in fitting out a great fleet, 
which at last rendezvoused at Sandwich, in 1009 ; but scarcely was 
it collected when Wulfnoth of Sussex (the nephew of Edric, who 
had married Ethelred’s daughter), and one of its chiefs, w T as ac¬ 
cused of treason, on which he fled with twenty ships and turned 
pirate. Eighty ships were sent against him, but a storm damaged 
many of them, and he burnt the rest; so that when Thurkill, a 
Norseman, appeared at Sandwich, there was no one to resist him. 
Having l&id Kent under tribute, he proceeded to besiege London 
with part of his forces, and remained before it during the win¬ 
ter, while others burnt Oxford. But London successfully resisted 
them; and in the spring they marched from East Anglia into Wes¬ 
sex, the Saxons being now so disheartened that “ each one fled as 
he best might. ” The invaders now scornfully refused a fresh offer 
of tribute, and continued their ravages until in the year 1010 they 
captured Canterbury, through the treachery of Aelmar, the abbot 
of St. Augustin’s, and made the Archbishop Alphege, who had de¬ 
fended it, their prisoner. 

§ 13. The next year [a.d. 1011] a tribute of £48,000 ($240,000) 
was offered to the invaders and accepted, w T hen they withdrew, 
but not before they had barbarously murdered the Archbishop, 
who had been for several months a prisoner in their hands, and 
who refused to pay an enormous ransom for his life, saying that 
he had no wealth but what belonged to the Church and the poor, 
and he would not rob them to save himself. 

§ 14. The following summer saw another invasion by Sweyn, 
but it was his last.- He was accompanied by his son Canute, and 
made a kind of triumphal progress through the country, no one 
dreaming of opposing him except the Londoners. Leaving them, 
he marched to Oxford, and Winchester, and.Bath, and then re¬ 
turning to Northumbria, he was formally accepted as king. Etli- 
elred now sent his queen, Emma, and her sons Edward and Alfred, 
to Duke Richard in Normandy, and followed them himself. The 


60 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book III. 

Death of Sweyn. Canute King. Ethelred’s career. 

Londoners at last submitted, when Sweyn levied “ a full tribute ” 
on them, and his general, Thurkill, encamped with a strong force 
at Greenwich. 

§ 15. It was towards the close of the year 1012 that the Danish 
king seemed thus firmly established in Great Britain ; and at the 
middle of January, 1013, he was acknowledged as “ Full King of 
England.” On the 3d of February he died ; and though his army 
chose his son Canute as their king, the council of the English re¬ 
called Etlielred. He returned; promised amendment of his con¬ 
duct, and for once displayed unexpected spirit, by attacking 
Canute and driving him to his ships. Canute showed his barbarity 
by cutting off the hands, ears, and noses of numerous hostages, and 
then setting them on shore at Sandwich. 

§ 16. Instigated by Edric, who was yet his favorite, Etlielred, 
soon after Canute’s departure, put to death Siferth and Morcar, 
two powerful chiefs of the Anglo-Danes, and thus again disgusted 
his subjects. Encouraged by this discontent, Canute again landed 
in Wessex, when he was joined by the treacherous Edric, and 
passed through Mercia to Northumberland, while Ethelred, though 
he had collected an army, feared to engage him, and once more 
shut himself up in London. Meanwhile the Danish army had pro¬ 
claimed Canute king of the whole country. He prepared to at¬ 
tack Ethelred in London ; but before he could reach the city the 
Saxon king died [April 23, a.d. 1017], leaving to his son Edmund 
a kingdom which was comprised within the walls of London. 

§ 17. Ethelred was twice married, and left a numerous family. 
His first wife, Elgiva, the daughter of Thorold, an East Anglian 
earl, was the mother of his successor, and ten more children ; his 
second wife, Emma, bore him Edward, and Alfred, and Goda, 
who married Eustace of Boulogne. Emma was so beautiful that 
she was called the “ Pearl of Normandy,” but the Saxons disliked 
her name, and styled her Elgiva. 

§ 18. The title of the “Unready,” given to Ethelred by Dun- 
stan, is sufficiently descriptive of his character if taken in its 
modern English meaning; but in the Saxon it is a scornful jest 
on his name. Ethelred means “ noble counsel; ” but “ se Unrede ” 
added to it gives the meaning of “ The noble counsellor who cannot 
advise.” His whole reign is one picture of crime and suffering, 
cruelty and weakness, and no redeeming features of piety, or gen¬ 
erosity, or courage are recorded of him by any historian. 


Chapter XVI.] 


THE SAXON ERA. 


67 


Edmund and Canute. A Compromise. 


Peace. 


CHAPTER XVI. 

reign of Edmund Ironsides, [a.d. 1016.] 

§ 1. TnE Saxons cliose for tlieir king, Edmund, a natural son of 
their monarch, who had given proof of his wisdom and valor. 
He was surnamed Ironsides. He was in London at the death of his 
father; and being chosen king, he at once left the city to the guard 
of its burgesses, and hurrying into Wessex, raised an army with 
which he defeated the Norsemen or Danes at Pen, in Dorsetshire, 
and a few days after at Burford, in Oxfordshire. Meanwhile 
Canute had besieged London, and dug a trench on the south side 
by which the assailants Brought their ships above the bridge; but 
they were suddenly attacked and defeated by Edmund, and obliged 
to retire. 

§ 2. The young king now returned to Wessex to raise fresh 
forces, and London was again besieged, but its people gallantly 
defended themselves. At length, on the approach of Edmund, 
many of the Norsemen retired to their ships, and sailing up the 
Orwell penetrated into Mercia, whilst others passed into Kent. 
Here they were followed by Edmund, who defeated them at 
Otford, when they fled into Slieppey, where they were too strong 
to be attacked. 

§ 3. Edmund then marched into Essex, where he encountered 
the enemy at Ashdown, near Saffron Walden; but being forsaken 
by Edric," who had again attached himself to the Sax- a ^ p 65 
ons, he suffered a terrible defeat. He retired into Glou¬ 
cestershire, pursued by Canute, and there an agreement was made 
by which the country was partitioned between them. Edmund 
retained Wessex, and Canute was acknowledged as sovereign of all 
the rest. The fleet and army again appeared before London, 
when, as further resistance was hopeless, a peace was bought of 
them, and the Norsemen’s winter quarters were established there. 

§ 4. Edmund died very shortly after this, on St. Andrew’s day 
[Nov. 30, 1016]. He is supposed to have been murdered by 
Edric. He was buried at Glastonbury, with his grandfather 
' Edgar. He had married Algitha, the widow °f b g 16> p 66 
Siferth, b and he left two young children, Edward and 
Edmund, but neither succeeded to his throne. Edmund was a 


68 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book III. 

Canute’s Cruelty. Marries Emma of Normandy. 

man of powerful frame and great courage.. He proposed to 
Canute to decide their claims by a duel, saying it was a pity so 
many lives should be lost or imperilled for their ambition. Ca¬ 
nute declined to fight because Edmund was very stout and he was 
slender, but thought it wiser to divide England between them. 


CHAPTER XVII. 

reign of Canute, [a.d. 1016 to 1035.] 

§ 1. Canute was in possession of London when Edmund died ; 
and powerful persons being brought forward to swear that 
Edmund had appointed him guardian of his children, he was at 
once chosen king of the whole of England, which he divided 
into four States, reserving the government of Wessex for him¬ 
self, and committing East Anglia to his general, Thurkill, Mercia 
to Edric the traitor, and Northumbria to Eric, a Dane, as his 
viceroys. 

§ 2. The guardianship of the children of Edmund that Canute 
had undertaken was but badly performed. He sent them to 
Sweden, expecting them, as it would seem, to be put to death, but 
the Swedish king, instead, sent them to the king of Hungary, who 
kindly protected them. Canute next seized and executed Edwy, a 
brother of Edward, and many of the English nobles. Having 
thus secured his throne, he abstained from further severities, and 
did all that lay in his power to induce the English and the Danes 
to dwell amicably together. A great assembly was accordingly 
held at Oxford in 1018, when a solemn reconciliation was effected. 

§ 3. As Edric, a from his treachery to all parties, 
a § 3 ’ p- 67 ’ had rendered himself hateful alike to English and 
Danes, Canute seized an opportunity of putting him to death. He 
also relieved himself from the fear of any attempt against, his 
power by the sons of Etlielred, by marrying their 
b§i7, p. 66. mottier Emma> b the- “Pearl of Normandy,” and 
promising that his issue by her should succeed to the throne. 
This marriage, though entered into merely from motives of policy, 
had a very happy effect on the character of Canute. He was not 
ignorant of Christianity before, but Emma succeeded in inducing 



Chapter XYIL] 

Emma’s Influence. 


THE SAXON ERA. 

Canute’s Dominions. 


69 


His character. 

him to lead a life more suitable to its profession than his career 
had hitherto been. 

§ 4. At her persuasion he took what seemed a very hazardous 
step, but the result justified her wisdom. He levied the heavy 
tribute of £82,500 ($412,500) on the land; but as it was known 
that it was to pay and .dismiss his army, it was willingly given. 
Accordingly all the fierce mercenaries were sent home, excepting 
the crews of forty ships; who, with their vessels, he wisely kept 
for the protection of his coasts. Thus England was once more 
free from the ravages of the Norsemen. 

§ 5. Canute claimed for himself the crown of Denmark, Sweden, 
and Norway, and held them by force of arms. He passed over to 
Denmark [a.d. 1019], taking with him Godwin and other nobles, 
and a large body of English, probably to prevent insurrection at 
home; but they served him gallantly in war, and Godwin became 
such a favorite that the rise of his power may be dated from this 
time. 

§ 6. Canute was descended from Alfred the Great,* and he 
evinced something of his ancestor’s wisdom in his p 46 
endeavors to repair the ravages of war. He en¬ 
acted just laws, rebuilt ruined churches, and showed much 
regard for the clergy. He also took great pleasure in their solemn 
church music. His example was followed by his fierce Danish 
nobles; and Thurkill, the general whose troops had b § ^ p ^ 
murdered Archbishop Alphege, b joined with his 
master in building a stately stone church at Ashdown, on the site 
of his great victory over Edmund. Stigand, who was afterwards 
Archbishop of Canterbury, was placed in it at the head of a body 
of monks who were provided to pray for the souls of the slain. 

§ 7. Soon after the return of Canute from Denmark, his viceroys 
Thurkill and Eric fell into disgrace and were banished. They 
had many friends, however, and he apprehended an invasion from 
them; therefore he put himself at the head of his fleet, and nar¬ 
rowly watched the seas. At length Thurkill regained his favor, 
and was made governor of Denmark. About this time Canute 
brought into submission Duncan, under-king of Cambria, and 
Malcolm, king of Scotland, who refused allegiance to the Dane.. 

§ 8. Up to this time the body of Archbishop Alphege had lam 
in St. Paul’s Church, in London; but Canute now determined to 
remove it to the prelate’s own cathedral. This was accordingly 


70 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book III. 

Canute’s endowment of Monasteries. He goes to Rome. His Family. 

done with solemn pomp, the king accompanying the body to 
Canterbury, and Queen Emma, with her young son Harthacanute, 
taking part in the procession. 

§ 9. The affairs of Denmark more than once called Canute away 
to Sweden or Norway, and he took with him large bodies of 
English, who served him so gallantly that he eventually became 
the most powerful monarch of the North. Each successful return 
to England was marked by some fresh act of bounty to the 
Church. Almost gvery year witnessed the foundation or endow¬ 
ment of a new monastery, the most remarkable being one in 
honor of Edmund of East Anglia, 8 whose tomb had 

“ § 1, p- 54. been pro f ane( i by Canute’s father, Sweyn. 

§ 10. In 1027 Canute undertook a pilgrimage to Rome, where 
he was most honorably received. By rich gifts he secured 
English pilgrims from many vexatious exactions which they had 
been subject to on their journey, and he procured important pri¬ 
vileges for the English school at Rome. Shortly after his return 
he made an expedition against Scotland, and received the sub¬ 
mission of Kenneth, the king, as well as of inferior chiefs, among 
whom is mentioned the familiar name of Macbeth, who had 
caused the murder of Duncan. 

§ 11. Canute’s English subjects seem to have been thoroughly 
reconciled to his sway, and we read of no disturbances among 
them. With his own Danes, however, it was otherwise; and in 
1029 one of their most powerful earls, Hacon, the husband of 
Canute’s niece, Gunhilda, was banished. He became a pirate, but 
died the following year before he could effect much mischief. 

§ 12. After the death of this man the days of Canute passed on 
quietly in acts of piety and charity until his own decease, which 
occurred at Shaftesbury, on the 12th of November, 1035. He was 
buried at Winchester. He left three sons, Sweyn, Harold, and 
Harthacanute, of whom the first two were his illegitimate children 
• by his concubine Algiva, the daughter of a Northumbrian earl, 
and the last was the offspring of Emma, the widow of Ethelred. 
Sweyn received his portion in Norway, but England was divided 
between Harold and Harthacanute. Canute had also a daughter 
by Emma, who was named Gunhilda, and was married to the 
young emperor Henry the Third of Germany, who was called “the 
pious,” because he gave three Popes to the see of Rome. 

§ 13. The story of Gunhilda is an interesting one, a3 showing 


THE SAXON ERA. 


71 


Chapter XVIII.] 

Story of Gunliilda. Ill-treatment of Canute’s "Widow. 

the spirit of the age. She was a princess of extreme beauty, but 
was still more famed for her virtue and her charity. She had not 
long been married when she was accused of infidelity to her hus¬ 
band, and was condemned to death, unless she could find a cham¬ 
pion to vindicate her honor. All her attendants believed her 
innocent, but none dared to encounter the champion that the 
emperor had chosen, who was a soldier of almost gigantic size. 
She would have suffered but for the love and courage of an 
English boy, who from his small size was called Mimecan. Find¬ 
ing his mistress forsaken by all, he undertook her cause, and, by 
what was esteemed a miracle, overcame the giant. The Emperor 
wished his injured wife to return to him, but she refused, and 
retired to Bruges, the court of her cousin Eleanor of Normandy, 
where she died soon afterward, greatly lamented. The Emperor 
was sorely grieved at her death, and felt remorse. 


CHAPTER XVIII. 

reign of Harold the First, [a.d. 1035 to 1040.] 

§ 1. It had been agreed that the crown of England should de¬ 
scend to Harthacanute, Emma’s son; but as he was absent when 
Canute died, Harold succeeded in obtaining it. At first the rivals 
agreed to a partition; but as Harthacanute lingered abroad in 
Denmark, he soon lost the favor of his partisans, and Harold was 
acknowledged king of the whole by the Witenagemot, or council 
of the wise men—the germ of the British parliament. 

§ 2. Harold’s first act was to despoil his step-mother Emma of 
her property, and to confine her at Winchester under the care of 
his body-guard. Next he invited her sons Edward and Alfred 
from Normandy, under pretence of friendship, when Alfred was 
murdered by his order, and Edward, who soon after Canute s 
death had made an unsuccessful invasion of England, only es¬ 
caped the same fate by flight. Then he drove out Emma in the 
middle of winter, and she found a refuge at the court of the Count 
of Flanders, who had married her niece, Eleanor of. Normandy. 
Here She was joined by Harthacanute, who was preparing for an 



HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 


T2 


IBook III. 


The last Danish King of England. His Violenoo. 

invasion of England, when Harold died at Oxford, March 1 1 , 
1040, and thus the coming contest was prevented. 

§ 3. Harold was termed Harefoot, from his lightness and activity 
in the chase, to which great part of his time was given. His reign 
is a record of violence and cruelty. It is believed that he was 
never crowned. The Archbishop of Canterbury, who was a Saxon, 
refused to perform the ceremony himself, or allow any bishop to do 
so. Because of this affront Harold showed an open contempt for 
Christians. He did not marry. After a reign of about five years 
he was buried at Winchester. 


CHAPTER XIX. 

beign of Habthacantjte. [a.d. 1040 TO 1042.] 

§ 1. Invited by a deputation of English and Danish thanes, 
Harthacanute came over to England, accompanied by a large fleet, 
and landed at Sandwich. His first act was the disgraceful one of 
disinterring his half-brother’s body, and casting it into the river. 
It was recovered by a fisherman, and again buried in the church 
of St. Clement, in which the Norsemen had taken refuge at the 
time of the massacre by order of Ethelred,* outside of 

8 § 8, p. 63. London He like( j t he p) anes , among whom he had 

long lived, better than the English, and brought with him many Teu¬ 
tonic courtiers and chiefs, and a large army and navy. Then he 
levied a heavy tax to pay his fleet, and, as a chronicler remarks, “ all 
were then averse to him who before had desired him. ’ The payment 
of the tax was resisted in many places, particularly at Worcester, 
where two of the royal guard, who were assisting in the collection, 
were killed. Harthacanute ordered the whole shire to be ravaged, 
and thus increased the hatred of the people. 

§ 2. Though thus violent, he would seem to have possessed some 
good qualities, as he showed much affection for his mother, and 
his half-brothers Alfred and Edward. It was with dilficulty that 
he was brought to forgive the actors in the murder of Alfred, and 
only on their solemn oaths that Harold had commanded it. He 
invited Edw.ard to England, received him cordially, and treated 
him most kindly. 



THE SAXON ERA. 


Chapter XX.] 

Death of Harthacanute. 


73 

Normans favored by Edward. 


§ 3. Harthacanute’s reign was very short. Ilis high steward, 
Osgod Clapa, gave a banquet at Lambeth, on the occasion of the 
marriage of his daughter, at which the young king was present. 
He stood up to drink the health of the bride, when he was seized 
with a sudden fit, and fell to the ground speechless. He died on 
the 8th of June, 1042, and was buried at Winchester. And so the 
last Danish monarch of England died drunk. He was a sot and a 
glutton. An old chronicler, of a little later period, lamented that 
Englishmen had learned from the example of Harthacanute “their 
excessive gormandizing and unmeasurable filling of their bellies 
with meats and drinks.” 


CHAPTER XX. 

reign of Edward the Confessor, [a.d. 1042 to 1066.] 

§ 1. When Harthacanute died, there was no legitimate Danish 
successor to the English throne. He was the last of Canute’s ac¬ 
knowledged sons. He had treated kindly his half-brother Edward, 
who, being in England at the time of the king’s death, was at 
once called to the throne. His inclinations would have earned 
him back to Normandy, to whose more cultivated people he had 
become attached; but he yielded to the Saxons, and ascended the 
throne in the year 1042. 

§ 2. The Danes in England were dissatisfied with the accession 
of Edward, but were obliged to submit. His preference for the 
Normans dissatisfied his whole people. He invited Normans of 
every condition to England, and endeavored to fill every post of 
trust with them. Robert, a Norman monk, was appointed Bishop 
of London, and afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury; other Nor¬ 
mans were placed in other sees; Hugolin, a Norman, was his 
treasurer and especial favorite; Otho and Ralph, with bands of 
Norman followers, garrisoned the castles and formed the royal 
body-guard; and the Norman dialect was the language of his 
court. 

§ 8. But there was one exception to this favor, and in making 
it the king dishonored his own character as a son and sovereign. 
4 



74 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 

Edward’s cruel treatment of his Mother. 


[Book III. 


It was liis treatment of his mother Emma, the “Pearl of Nor¬ 
mandy,” as she was called. 11 Edward accused 
* ’ p ' ' her of having wished to hinder his accession to the 
throne, though she had no other son to take it. On this charge 
he confiscated her lands and imprisoned her, and deprived 
Stigand, b her spiritual adviser, of his bishopric. He 
b § 6, p. 69. even com p e n e d h er to submit to the ordeal of fire. 
By this she was acquitted, when Edward, having no pretext for 
further persecution, gave an island and manors to the church at 
Winchester in token of his penitence. 

§ 4. It was chiefly through the influence of Godwin, the power¬ 
ful and unscrupulous Earl of Wessex, that Edward’s peaceable acces¬ 
sion to the throne had been secured. He knew that Edward shared 
in the common belief that the earl was guilty of the murder of the 
king’s brother, Alfred, 0 and he took early measures to 
<= § 2 , p. n. gecure }ri mse if an( [ family from harm. He obtained 
extensions of territories; honors and commands for himself and 
sons; a solemn assurance that the past should be forgiven, and a 
pledge for the future. He compelled Edward to marry his fair 
daughter, Editha, who was worthy of a better husband. Edward 
detested the man to whom, in a degree, he was indebted for the 
throne, and refused to be a husband to his daughter. She was 
queen of the realm, but not of her husband’s affections. And on 
occasion of a quarrel with her relations, Edward imprisoned her 


in a nunnery. But Edward was a mere tool in the hands of God¬ 
win and his six sons. 

§ 5. Soon after Edward’s marriage, Magnus, the king of Nor¬ 
way, threatened to renew the horrors of former years by a fresh 
invasion [a.d. 1043]; but Godwin promptly collected a large 
fleet at Sandwich, and also procured the banishment of the wid- 
d §n, p. 70. ow °* Hacon and her sons, d and of Osgod Clapa, 

’ the favorite of Harthacanute, e and other influential 

® § Oj p» # 

Danes, who were suspected of having invited him. 
Magnus himself being attacked by Sweyn of Denmark, the nephew 
of Canute, the invasion was never attempted. The first attack on 
England proceeded from one of Godwin’s own family. 

§ G. This was Sweyn, his second son, a man of cruel and lawless 
habits, who was outlawed for carrying off the abbess of Leominster 
from her convent. He retired to Flanders, and joined with Lothen 
and Yrling, two Danish chiefs, in a piratical cruise along the 


THE SAXON ERA. 


Chapter XX.] 


Earl Godwin’s Career. 


William of Normandy. 


English coast. After a time he wished to make his peace, and 
offered to join the royal fleet with seven ships; but his terms being 
refused, he treacherously murdered his kinsman Beorn, who had 
opposed his pardon, and again fled to Flanders. Osgod Clapa 
also ravaged Essex, and some others of the banished Danes pro¬ 
cured a fleet from Ireland, which joined with the Welsh to devastate 
the west of England. 

§ 7. Godwin, being at the head of affairs, had no wish to see 
these depredations continue, and therefore after a time Sweyn was 
reinstated in his lands; but this was scarcely accomplished when 
a quarrel broke out between the king and Godwin, which resulted 
in the temporary banishment of the whole family, in the year 
1051. The cause was as follows :— 

Eustace, the Count of Boulogne, who had married King 
Edward’s sister Goda, paid a visit to England, bringing with him 
a numerous armed retinue. The people were irritated by then* 
insolent behavior, and when they reached Dover, on their way 
back, a quarrel broke out between them and the townsmen, in 
which several lives were lost. Eustace hurried back to the king 
and demanded redress, and Godwin, in whose earldom the affair 
had happened, was strictly charged to punish the townsmen. He 
found, however, that they were the injured party, and in his turn 
demanded redress for them. Edward showed unwonted spirit, 
and calling Si ward and Leofric, the Earls of Northumberland and 
Mercia, to his aid, the result was a meeting of the chief men, by 
which Godwin and all his family were banished. 

§ 8. The Norman party was now strengthened by the arrival, as 
a visitor, of Duke William, the grandson of Edward’s protector in 
Normandy, who was an able and crafty prince, and already 
meditated the seizure of the realm of England. Robert, the 
Norman monk already mentioned,* was' now made a § 2 p 73 
archbishop, and Spearhafoc, a Saxon abbot, was 
appointed to succeed him ; but Robert refused to consecrate him, 
and got William, another Norman, made Bishop of London 
instead. The discontent that this occasioned was not lost on 
Godwin and his family, who were men not likely to bear quietly 
the loss of lands and honors. 

§ 9. Godwin and Sweyn had retired to Flanders, and Harold 
and his brother Leofwinc to Ireland. They soon collected fleets ; 
but when about to sail Sweyn went on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, 


76 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book III. 

Death of Godwin. Expedition against Scotland. Contests between the Nobles. 

from which he never returned. Godwin, however, joined his other 
sons, and appearing in the Thames with a powerful force, another 
assembly was held, which reinstated him and his family, and drove 
out the Normans. Robert, and Ulf the Bishop of Dorchester, fled 
in a crazy boat across the sea, and their military comrades sought 
refuge in Scotland, where many of thqm perished in supporting 
the cause of the usurper Macbeth, in the year 1054. 

§ 10. Godwin did not long survive the triumph of his house and 
re-establishment of the Saxon supremacy. He was seized with 
illness at Easter, 1053, while sitting at the royal table, and died 
three days after. His son Harold succeeded to his possessions, 
but resigned his own earldom of East Anglia to Elfgar, the son 
of Leofric of Mercia. 

§ 11. In the following year occurred the only foreign expedition 
of Edward’s reign. This was against Scotland, and was con¬ 
ducted by Siward, the powerful Earl of Northumberland, who died 
shortly after his return, when his earldom was bestowed on Tostig, 
a brother of Harold, and the power of the family became greater 
than ever. 

§ 12. Elfgar was now outlawed, for what cause is unknown, 
but he leagued himself with Griflin, the King of South Wales, and 
by his aid and that of a fleet from Ireland he regained his lands 
in the year 1055. Three years later the same scene was renewed. 
Elfgar was once more outlawed by Edward; but though the 
help of Griflin (who had married Elfgar’s daughter Edith) re¬ 
established him, that help brought on the Welsh prince the arms 
of Harold and Tostig, who attacked him both by sea and land, 
and at last reduced his people to such distress that they cut off the 
head of Griffin, and sent it to the king in token of submission 
[a.d. 1063], and his two brothers, Blethin and Rywallon, acknow¬ 
ledged themselves the vassals of England. 

§ 13. While these contests between his great nobles were going 
on, Edward summoned to England his nephew Edward the Ath- 
eling, who had for many years resided abroad, with the intention 
that he should succeed him, but the prince died shortly after his 
arrival, and the king’s hopes were transferred to his son, Edgar the 
Atheling. 

§ 14. Tostig, who was even more violent and cruel than his 
brother Sweyn, treated the people of his earldom so tyrannically, 
that at last, in the autumn of 1065, they expelled him, and chose 


Chapter XX.] THE SAXON ERA. 77 

William of Normandy. His Courtship and Marriage. Edward’s Piety. 

Morcar, the son of Elfgar, for their governor. Harold endeavored 
to reconcile the contending parties, but in vain, and at last Tostig 
was obliged to retire to Flanders, where he leagued himself with his 
brothers-in-law, Baldwin and William of Normandy, 11 a 1 8 p 26 
and thus succeeded in causing the conquest of his 
native country by foreigners. 

§ 15. William, afterwards known as the Conqueror, was the 
natural son of Robert, Duke of Normandy, the descendant of 
Rollo, a Norseman, who wrested the province called Neustria 
from Charles the Simple, King of France, about the beginning of 
the tenth century. William succeeded to the dukedom when 
a child; but as he grew up he showed so much vigor and 
address, that he at length became one of the most considerable 
princes of his day. He was a man of great size and strength, a 
famous horseman and archer, and of harsh and stern aspect. His 
character was alike treacherous, resolute, and Cruel; but it suited 
the people he had to deal with, as may be seen by the manner in 
which he obtained a wife, whose connections greatly added to his 
strength. 

§ 16. He demanded of Baldwin, Count of Flanders, his daugh¬ 
ter Matilda, and the Count was willing to grant his suit; but 
the princess scornfully declared she would never take a bastard 
for her husband. The refusal was of course conveyed in more 
courteous terms ; but William afterward learnt what had been said, 
and in a rage he repaired to Baldwin’s court almost alone. He 
left his attendants in the hall, and going to the chamber of 
Matilda, he seized her by the hair, dragged her about the ground 
and kicked her; then he mounted his horse and rode off unmo¬ 
lested. Instead of war following from this piece of brutality, 
Matilda now readily agreed to marry him, saying that a man 
who would dare to act thus would be her sure protector against 
any one else. 

§ 17. King Edward had, while in exile, made a vow to under¬ 
take a pilgrimage to Rome, if he should ever return to England. 
Not seeing any prospect of fulfilling it, he prevailed on Pope Leo 
IX. to allow him to build a monastery instead. He chose to re¬ 
build, on a large scale, an abbey dedicated to St. Peter, that stood 
on a wild swampy piece of ground on the bank of the Thames, 
called Thorny Island; Westminster Abbey now occupies its site. 
The work went on year by year, and Edward sent ambassadors to 


78 HISTORY OF ENGLAND, [Book III. 

Edward’s Death. He is Canonized. The “ King‘s Evil.” 

Rome to procure extraordinary privileges for the monks that he 
intended to place there. At last it was finished, and he came to 
the consecration, which took place on the third day after Christ¬ 
mas, 1065. He fell ill during the ceremony, and after lingering a 
few days he died on the 5th of January, 1066. He was speechless 
during the greater part of the time, but when his end drew near 
he uttered some words which his attendants interpreted as a 
bequest of the crown to Harold. On the day following he was 
buried in his new church, and his shrine (for he was afterwards 
sainted) still remains in Westminster Abbey, the only one of such 
relics of superstition there that has escaped destruction. 

§ 18. Edward is known as “ The Confessor,” 1 but in earlier 
ages he was called “ the good King Edward.” He was long re¬ 
garded as the patron saint of England, and his generosity and 
kindness were themes of many a story. Laws made long before 
his time were ascribed to him. It was believed by the simple that 
his relics and his tomb wrought miracles; and it was widely de¬ 
clared that his touch had cured scrofula. Even until the time of 
Queen Anne, seven hundred years afterward, the superstitious be¬ 
lieved that the gift was hereditary in the monarchs of England, 
and the “touch” for “king’s evil,” or scrofula, was sought. At 
Christmas, 1682, the Bishop of Durham wrote:—“The number of 
Persons that have been Touched for the [King’s] Evil, and so many 
medals delivered for that Use, from July 24, to December 23, 
1682, was 3535.” 


CHAPTER XXL 

reign of Harold the Second. [a.d. 1066.] 

§ 1. Now, again, there was strife for the crown of England. 

The powerful Godwin 0 and his friends declared that 
§ 4, p. <4. Edward, j ug £ before he expired, recovered his speech 
sufficient to bequeath his crown and kingdom to Godwin’s eldest 

1 This name was given in the early days of Christianity to persons who incurred 
suffering for adhering to their religion among heathen nations, but were not, like the 
martyrs, put to death. In the case of Edward, however, it only meant that he was a 
man of exemplary piety, and of monastic strictness of life. 



Chapter XXL] THE SAXON ERA. T9 

Harold the Second. Claims of William of Normandy. Harold’s War with his Brother. 

son, Harold. The “ Great Earl ” was descended from the kings of 
the South Saxons, and was son of Wulfnoth, already mentioned,® 
and Harold, it is recorded, had few of the vices of a g 12 p 65 
his family. 

§ 2. Edward left no children. As we have seen, b he intended 
his grandnephew, Edgar the Atheling, to be his heir. b ^ 13 p ^ 
The false Earl’s assertion concerning Edward’s dying 
bequest set aside Edgar’s claim, and not waiting for the consent 
of the great council of wise men, 0 as usual, Godwin c § 26 p 84 
procured the coronation of Harold on the day of the 
dead king’s funeral. The new king made a peace-offering to 
Edgar by bestowing upon him the Earldom of Oxford. After that 
the monarch made a journey to the north, where he was well re¬ 
ceived, and at Easter he was recognized by the great council as 
king. 

§ 3. Harold’s reign was very brief. William, the Duke of Nor¬ 
mandy,' 1 also professed to be the heir of King Edward, d § 8 p 76 
who, he declared, had promised it to him when he 
was in England. Harold had once been thrown into his power 
by shipwreck, and he obliged him to take an oath to support 
his claim to the crown as the price of his release. On hearing of 
the accession of Harold, the Duke claimed his promise, and for¬ 
mally demanded the throne, but Harold declined to comply, say¬ 
ing that his oath was invalid, as it had been extorted by force and 
fraud. He at once raised an army and fleet to watch the coast, 
and William on his side prepared for an invasion. 

§ 4. The first blow, however, came from Harold’s brother, 
Tostig, who arrived in the Isle of Wight and plundered it, in the 
month of April, 1066. He next attacked Thanet, but was re¬ 
pulsed, and on the approach of Harold he fled to the Humber. 
Thence he was driven by Morcar, his successor in the earldom of 
Northumberland, and obliged to flee to Scotland. 

§ 5. Harold’s fleet kept the sea during the summer; but early 
in September he was obliged to dismiss it from want of pro¬ 
visions, and this gave his enemies a fatal advantage over him. 
A renowned sea-rover, known as Harold Hardrada (Harold the 
Stern), who had lately made himself master of Norway, came into 
the Tyne, when Tostig repaired to him, and, by a promise of 
dividing the spoil, engaged him to make an attack on England. 

§ 6. Their first act was to burn the town of Scarborough, after 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 


SO 


[Book III. 


Battle with the Norwegians. William’s Preparation for Invasion. The Pope’s Help. 

which they landed near Selby, and advancing to Fulford, near 
York, they there defeated Morcar and Edwin his brother [Sept. 20, 
a.d. 1066], when the whole province submitted to them. The 
news was carried quickly to Harold, and he marched with such 
despatch that he reached York four days afterward, just as the 
castle there had surrendered. 

§ 7. The Norwegians thought that their work was done, and 
retired quietly to their ships, which lay in the river Ouse, near 
Stanford bridge. They landed the next morning, expecting to 
receive some promised hostages, but instead, they beheld Harold 
in full march towards them. Tostig advised an instant retreat 
to their ships, but this Hardrada refused to do. Before their forces 
met, Harold advanced, and offered one-third of the kingdom to 
Tostig rather than fight with a brother. “ And what is to be the 
portion of my ally?” inquired Tostig. “Seven feet of English 
earth, or more if his height requires it,” answered the king, for 
Hardrada was almost a giant. 

§ 8. A fierce battle at once ensued, which ended in the total de¬ 
feat of the Norwegians, and the death of both of their leaders. But 
Harold also lost heavily. The remainder of the Norwegians, in¬ 
cluding a son of Hardrada, the Earl of Orkney, and a bishop, sub¬ 
mitted themselves to the mercy of Harold, and were allowed 
twenty-four ships to take them to their own country. 

§ 9. Meanwhile, Duke William of Normandy a had pushed on 
a § 3 p 79 preparations with vigor. He built ships, and 

offered liberal pay to soldiers of all countries. They 
flocked to his standard—the three lions of Normandy—in large 
numbers. He enlisted Pope Alexander the Second in his cause. 
That pontiff sent him a diploma of good-will, signed with the cross, 
and bearing a round seal of lead. 1 He also sent him a consecrated 
banner, and a valuable ring, containing, it was pretended, a hair 
from the head of St. Peter; also a declaration that Harold was a 
perjured man. 

§ 10. With these certificates that his cause was just, William 
found no difficulty in getting supplies of money, even from bish¬ 
ops and abbots, promising to repay them from the spoils of Eng¬ 
land. His fleet, composed of about 8,000 vessels, was soon ready 


1 Called, in Latin, “Bulla;” hence the common name of “Bull” for the Pope’s 
diplomas, proclamations, letters, etc. 


Chapter XXI.] THE SAXON ERA. ' 81 

William’s Invasion of England. Battle of Hastings. The Parties in the Contest. 

for sea; and when he ascertained that Harold’s ships had been 
withdrawn, a he sailed from St. Vatery, in Normandy, 
his splendid flag-ship presented to him by his wife, * § 5 ’ P ‘ ‘°‘ 
Matilda, leading the van. On the second day (September 28, a.d. 
1066) they entered Pevensy Bay, on the coast of Sussex, and landed 
without opposition. The invaders then marched eastward a few 
miles along the shore, and at a suitable spot not far from Hastings 
they established a fortified camp, 1 from which they sent out plun¬ 
dering parties into the neighboring country. 

§ 11. Harold was soon told of the landing of Duke William 
while sitting at table, in York. Weakened as he was by the bat¬ 
tle near the Ouse, only three days before, he lost no time in march¬ 
ing against the invader. His friends, who began everywhere to 
raise an army, tried to persuade him to wait until his troops could 
be strengthened by re-enforcements, but Harold would not listen to 
them. He pressed forward with energy, and came in sight of the 
Norman camp on the 18th of October, 1066. 

§ 12. The fight that ensued next day (October 14, a.d. 1066) is 
usually known as the battle of Hastings, though in reality it was 
fought where now stand the remains of Battle Abbey, some ten 
miles from the sea. The Saxon account of it is very brief; but 
Norman writers give a variety of details disparaging to their ene¬ 
mies and laudatory to the invaders, many of which are manifestly 
untrue. According to them, the Saxons passed the preceding 
night in riot and jollity, which is hardly likely to have occurred 
on the bleak hills of Sussex, after a fortnight’s forced march; while 
the Normans were intent on nothing but their devotions, which is 
equally unlikely, after their fortnight’s plunder and ravage. 

§ 18. The Saxons, or English, were encamped on a hill, in one 
solid mass, enclosed by a rough intrenchment of wattles, and with 
a piece of marshy ground between them and their enemies. The 
Kentish men were in front, and the Londoners guarded the stand¬ 
ard. By the side of the latter stood Harold himself, and his 
brothers G-yrth and Leofwin. The force of the English appears to 
have been entirely foot-soldiers. They were armed with heavy swords 
and battle-axes, and long spears for close combat, and javelins for 
casting at the foe as they approached. The Normans, on the con- 

i Near the railway station of St. Leonard’s is a large stone, which for centuries has 
been pointed out as “the Conqueror’s dining-table,” and is supposed to be on the site 
of the Norman camp. 

4* 


82 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book III. 

How the Battle raged. The English Shields. A Stratagem and an Ambush. 

trary, had horse and foot heavily armed, besides archers and 
slingers. 

§ 14. The Norman cavalry picked their way through the marsh, 
and then galloped up the hill, led by a giant champion, juggler 
and bard, on horseback, singing an old war-ballad called the 
Song of Roland. They were repulse^ in an attempt to force their 
way into the Saxon camp, and they soon retired, leaving Taillefer, 
the bard, dead on the ground. A second and a third charge was 
made with the same want of success; for the Saxons, shoulder to 
shoulder, formed a wall with their shields which Norman arrows 
could not penetrate. William rode about encouraging his men, 
and had three horses killed under him. His warlike half-brother 
Odo, the Bishop of Bayeux, who wore a hauberk over his robes, 
and carried a mace in his hand, brought up re-enforcements, crying 
to the dispirited horsemen, “ Stand fast, stand fast! If God please, 
we shall conquer yet.” This for a time seemed very unlikely, 
7 and Eustace of Boulogne a even proposed to draw off; 

’ P * ' but William saw that this would be destruction, and 
instead changed his mode of attack. 

§ 15. Finding the English closed shields almost invulnerable, 
and that their bearers fought with heads uncovered, he again 
brought his archers forward and directed them to shoot their 
arrows upward, so that their heavy sharp points should fall like 
hail within the stockade. Many of the English were now slain. 
But they stood firm. The battle raged fiercely, and to the Norman 
war-cry, “ Dieu aide! ” the English shouted “ Holy Cross, God 
Almighty ! ” 

§ 16. For six hours the fight had gone on most furiously, when 
William, convinced that he could not drive the English from their 
stronghold, employed a stratagem to draw them out from it. He 
placed a strong force in ambush, and ordered a thousand cavalry 
to make a feigned charge, and to retire in disorder. The English 
fell into the snare. They rushed out upon the broken line, and 
were assailed on both flanks by the concealed foe. Many fell, but 
a greater portion fought their way back. They were made vic¬ 
tims a second time by the same stratagem, but they did not lose 
their fortified camp. 

§ 17. A third time the English fell into the same snare with 
disastrous results. The Normans, horse and foot, burst into the 
bravely defended stockade, and broke the English line at several 


Chapter XXI.] THE SAXON ERA. . 83 

Death of Harold. The English Standard. Normans victorious. 

points. Harold’s soldiers gathered thickly around him. Through¬ 
out the day he had fought with distinguished gallantry, and they 
were determined to defend him and their national standard until 
the last hope should fade. 

§ 18. At length an arrow came down from its flight high in 
air, struck the king in the eye, and, penetrating his brain, killed 
him instantly. Then the English gave way for a moment, but 
with Harold’s brothers, Gurth and Leofwin, they rallied around 
the standard and fought desperately with their battle-axes and 
spears for its possession. In that struggle the king’s brothers were 
killed. At last, when the English, after a continuous fight for 
nine hours, were nearly exhausted,. twenty iron-clad Norman 
knights undertook to capture the standard. They did so, but 
with the loss of half their number. Then the ensign of England, 
glittering with gold and precious stones, was lowered a § 2 P 80 
and the consecrated banner sent by the Pope to Wil¬ 
liam 11 was raised upon the same spot, over the stockade, amid 
shouts of victory. 

§ 19. After a desperate attempt to rally again, in which both 
sides lost many men, the English at every point gave way and fled 
to the woods in broken columns, pursued by the light of the 
moon. They turned frequently and disastrously upon their pur¬ 
suers, who soon gave up the chase. 

§ 20. So ended in victory the invasion of William of Normandy. 
“ So,” as an old English writer said, “ the Frenchman had pos¬ 
session of the field of carnage, all as God granted them for the 
people’s sins.” “Thus,” said another old writer, “was tried by 
the great assize of God’s judgment in battle the right of power 
between the English and Norman nations; a battle the most 
memorable of all others ; and howsoever miserably lost, yet most 
nobly fought on the part of England.” 

§ 21. The victors passed the night on the battle-field, where 
William had been once prostrated by a blow on his helmet by a 
battle-axe, and had three horses killed under him. Of the splen¬ 
did army led by proud lords and knights, one-fourth of those who 
sailed from Vatery'Tiad perished. He was yet far from being the 
conqueror of England, for he had not gained one-fourth of the 
kingdom. It took him seven long years to complete what he had 
so auspiciously begun. 

§ 22, In the morning after the bactie the victors began to bury 


84 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 


-- _—[Book III. 

Harold’s Family and Destiny. Battle Abbey. England Plundered, not Conquered. 

the dead. According to the best accounts, the body of Harold 
was recognized by his .wife, and delivered by Duke William to 
his mother, Githa, Earl Godwin’s wife, who was the sister of Ulf, 
Canute’s brother-in-law. By her it was buried in Waltham Abbey, 
a church which Harold had founded in Essex. Harold’s queen 
was “ Edith the Fair,” daughter of his rival, Elfgar 


a § 10, p.77 . 
b § 12, p. 77. 


<= § 13, p. 70. 


of Mercia a , and widow of Griffin, king of South 
Wales. b He had several sons and daughters, who 
finally returned to Norway. One became a monk. One daughter 
was married to Waldemar, a Swedish prince. Another (Gunhilda), 
with her mother and Harold’s sister, retired to Flanders and 
became a nun. At her death she was buried in the same church as 
Gunhilda, the persecuted empress,® where the monu¬ 
mental inscriptions of both yet exist. 

§ 23. William cleared the space around the spot where Harold's 
standard was humbled and the Pope’s consecrated banner was 
set up, and then he and his nobles feasted. Then he made a vow 
that on that spot he would build a splendid Abbey. The vow was 
fulfilled, and over the ground once wet with the mingled blood of 
Englishmen and Frenchmen—where their ensigns of war were 
planted—the high altar of “Battle Abbey” stood for centuries. 
Such was the name given by William to the structure reared and 
endowed chiefly by the use of property plundered from the English. 

§ 24. We have remarked that the victory of Hastings was not 
the conquest of England. It w|is only the beginning of the series 
of death-blows which the Normans gave to Saxon rule there, and 
the first important work in the establishment of Norman rule in 
Great Britain. 

§ 25. Duke William was too much crippled in the field of 
Hastings to be able to move forward at once. So he returned to 
his camp and awaited for re-enforcements, with a full expectation 
that the English would offer their submission. But no English¬ 
man came near him ; and with some fresh troops from Normandy 
he moved eastward along the coast, burning and plundering 
Romney and massacring its inhabitants, and laying waste Dover 
and other places. Then he pushed into the interior and penetrated 
Kent, where the overawed people did not offer opposition. 

§ 26. Meanwhile the Saxon or English Witan, or Witenage- 
d § 10, p. 87. raote d — tlie ® reat civil council — had met in London to 
deliberate on public affairs. Unwilling to submit to 


Chapter XXII.] THE SAXON ERA. 85 

Struggle for the Crown. The English Subdued. The Conqueror Crowned King. 

the invader, they bestowed the crown of England on Edgar 
Atheling, the imbecile son of Edmund Ironsides, a and 

o' ' a § 1 p 67 

descendant of the great Alfred. London was very 
strongly fortified, and William passed by it after marching through 
Kent, and spread his troops over Hertfordshire. There he plun¬ 
dered and laid waste in every direction, and met with little 
resistance excepting by the resolute Frederic, then Abbot of St. 
Alban’s (who was a member of the Danish royal family), who 
vainly endeavored to check the march of the invaders by blocking 
the roads with felled trees. 

§ 27. William took a position at Birkhampstead, where he 
might intercept all communication with London from the north, 
and the city was soon threatened with famine. He sent a party of 
horse, which defeated the Londoners under their own walls. Sore 
pressed, the passive king and leading men of the realm repaired to 
William’s camp, and humbly submitted to his authority. To him 
the king forlnally surrendered the crown, and William agreed to 
be a “ loving lord ” to the people. 

§ 28. William now moved toward London, and upon the ruins 
of a Roman castle he built a fort which, in time, grew into the 
present Tower of London. He remained with his troops until his 
fortifications were completed, and on Christmas day [a.d. 1066] he 
was crowned king of England in the new Westminster Abbey, the 
last pious work of Edward the Confessor. b The b § 17 p 7a 
crown was set upon his head by Aldred, Archbishop 
of York, who did the same for Harold less than a year before. 
From this event may be dated the Norman rule in England. 


CHAPTER XXn. 

SOCIETY DURING THE SAXON ERA. 

§ 1. In our brief view of the civil and military transactions of 
the Saxon era, we have seen little else than evidences of a half-bar¬ 
barous state of society during about 600 years. Might made right, 
and vices of every kind stained the characters of men and women 
highest in social influence, to which the chroniclers have called 
our attention. That noble virtues abounded in humble and 



86 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 

Religion of tho Invaders from the North. 


[Book III. 

Their Mythology. 


private life we may not doubt; but they have not been, unfor¬ 
tunately, the subject of the historian’s pen. To the piratical forays 
of the wild sea-rovers, and the internecine wars in Britain, the 
continuance of that half-barbarous state so long may be mainly 
attributed. 

§ 2. During most of that time Christianity had a footing in 
Great Britain, but in corrupted form. At one time it was almost 
obliterated by the paganism of barbarian invaders, in whose 
religious system we find traces of Oriental mythology, which they 
brought with them from their Scythian home in northern Persia. 
It was a crude polytheism. Noden or Odin, who seems to have 
been a mortal leader in the great emigration from the Euxine 
to the Baltic, was the Supreme deity. Frigga, or Fria, his 
■wife, was the goddess of love and sensuality. Their sons and 
daughters were gods and goddesses, and were their chief dep¬ 
uties in the management of the universe—Thor controlling tem¬ 
pests, Balder managing light, Kiord superintending the waters. 
These were inferior deities ; and Genii and Spirits formed a 
universal Providence, meddling in all human affairs for good and 
for evil. 

§ 3. Valhalla—Hall of the Gods—was the heaven of this fierce 
race. There, all day long, immortals were in furious combat with 
deadly weapons, but at night their Wounds were all healed, and 
they indulged in drunkenness and gluttony to their hearts’ content. 
The cowardly and slothful—the only sinners—went to another 
place, where a feminine fiend presided, whose palace was Anguish; 
her table, Famine; her waiters, Expectation and Delay; the thresh¬ 
old of her door, Precipice; her bed, Leanness; and her aspect, 
Terror. 

§ 4. Heaven was the inheritance of all warriors; and those 
who had slain the most enemies would be there the highest in 
privileges. Hell—the abode of the feminine fiend—was the 
fate of those who never engaged in battle, or who died a natural 
death. 

§ 5. Their temples had huge images of Woden brandishing a 
sword. Upon their altars human blood flowed freely. There 
crowds of captives were sacrificed, and even princes slew their 
sons in the sacred fanes to avert dreaded calamities. The penalty 
of dying a natural death could be commuted by a human sacrifice, 
and for this purpose many a slave was purchased and was offered 


Chapter XXII.] 


87 


THE SAXON ERA. 

Christianity in England. The Clergy. The Saxon Government. 

in the horrid rite. Superstition reigned supreme, and human life 
and human affairs were subjected to its awful control. 

§ 6. We can easily understand how a people governed by such a 
religious system could be human fiends, and how, for centuries, 
they postponed the triumph of Christian civilization in Great 
Britain. The Saxons appear to have been less sanguinary than the 
Danes. The latter were the darker worshippers of Woden and his 
retinue. 

§ 7. We have had sufficient glimpses of Christianity in Britain 
during the Saxon era to form an opinion of its general character. 
Its essence was everywhere meliorating and humanizing, but the 
practice of its higher ministers seems to have not always been in 
accordance with its pure spirit. The characters of many of tlia 
ecclesiastics were consonant with the age in which they lived ; and 
the marvellous conversions of whole tribes, and universal back- 
slidings, show us that, to a large extent, Christianity was a fashion 
rather than a sentiment. 

§ 8. Its ministers everywhere asserted power, and ruled more 
by law than gospel. They were eminently worldly. Their greed 
was rapacious; and their extortions, through fear or force, were 
cruel. As a class they became enormously wealthy, and at times 
were the depositaries of the dominant power of the State. Pride, 
profligacy, and superstition were rife in the Church. Monastic 
establishments, which dotted the land, were, according to the 
Venerable Bede, “sinks of pollution,” wherein luxury,idleness, and 
licentiousness revelled unrestrained. Priestcraft became an enor¬ 
mous burden upon the people, and a hindrance to the spread of 

the gospel. 

§ 9. The government during the Saxon era was partly despotic, 
partly popular. Roman law, as we have seen, a was a § ^ p 21 
but the will of the Emperor in practice. When ‘ 

Roman civilization, such as it was, left Britain, a long period of 
disorder followed. But out of that chaos has grown the boasted 
English liberty, which has its most perfect development m our 
Republic. Its germ was seen in the independence of individuals, 
and assemblages of freemen to consider the affairs of State. 

§ 10. For a long time after the Romans left, government was 
exercised by the heads of families or tribes. After- b § ^ p 31 
ward, when tribal alliances were formed for common 
defence, and there was a superior chief or Britwalda,* and there 


88 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book III. 

The Germ of Parliament. The Law. Commerce. Slave-trade. 

were conflicting local interests, disputes naturally arose, and 
wise men were appointed to meet and adjudicatb. Although these 
assemblages were at first more courts of law than legislatures, they 
assumed the latter form in time. Such was the Saxon Grand 
Council, or Witenagemote—the prototype of the modern Parlia¬ 
ment and Congress—in which bishops held the first rank, earls or 
aldermen next, and thanes, or lower class of nobles, next. The 
feudal system was not fully developed in Britain until after the 
Norman conquest. 

§ 11. Out of the aristocratic system of popular representation in 
the government grew the custom of trial by jury; and Christianity, 
recognizing an overruling Providence in the affairs of men, sug¬ 
gested the ordeal, or imaginary appeal to heaven, in the law of 
chance, which, in a degree, took the place of the law of force. 
But the efforts of good and wise men, during all of the Saxon 
era, to establish justice and promote mercy, could not prevent the 
practical operation of the doctrine of the mailed hand, that might 
makes right. 

§ 12. Commerce was a prominent, but by no means eminent 
feature of the natural industry of Great Britain during the Saxon 
period. It was fostered by insulation, and stimulated by inter¬ 
course with the East through the Christian pilgrimages to Jerusalem. 
In fact, a pilgrimage was often a cloak for smuggling, when 
customs were levied at seaports. The harbors of Britain were 
continually visited by foreign ships engaged in traffic; and British 
merchantmen were seen in all parts of the Mediterranean, Adriatic, 
and Baltic Seas and along the whole western coast of Europe, 
before the Conquest. The merchant who made three sea-voyages 
with his own ship and cargo was entitled to the rank of thane or 
noble. 

§ 13. Traffic was active toward the close of the Saxon period, 
and the subjects of it were numerous. They comprised domestic 
animals, skins, agricultural products of every kind, the treasures 
of the mines and of the sea, many kinds of manufactures, and 
men and women. Slave-dealers were seen in all parts of the 
country buying men and women, and exporting them from the 
port of Bristol to Ireland for gain. An old chronicler says: “You 
might have seen, with sorrow, large ranks of young persons of 
both sexes, and of the greatest beauty, tied together with ropes, 
and daily exposed to sale.” There was also &W active internal 


Chapter XXII.] THE SAXON ERA. . 89 

National Industries. Clerical Mechanics. Ship-building. Artisans honored. 

traffic by which commodities were exchanged, or bartered for 
money, the prices being fixed by law. 1 

§ 14. The various useful arts and manufactures were carried 
on quite extensively. Iron-works were established, and skilled 
artificers in all metals were numerous. The jewelry of the 
Anglo-Saxons was sought after by dwellers on the continent. 
Smiths, wagon-makers, wheelwrights, carpenters, masons, mill¬ 
wrights, tanners, shoemakers, weavers, and tailors abounded. 
There were also skilful armorers. Toward the close of the Saxon 
era glass-making, learned from the French, was carried on in 
several places. 

§ 15. Some of the most skilful mechanics were found in the 
monasteries. King Edgar a commanded that “ every ^ p 5g 
priest, to increase knowledge, should diligently leam b g 4 ’ p eo 
some handicraft.” St. Dunstan b was one of the most 
famous workers in metals for the sacred services. He made bells, 
candlesticks, crucifixes, images, and chalices of silver and gold, 
and ornamented with precious stones. 

§ 16. Ship-building was an important branch of industry ; and 
at that early age the ships of Britain, made of the oak, were 
noted for their strength and speed. The head of a royal ship w T as 
wrought with gold; the deck was gilded, and the sails were 
made of purple stuffs. Mechanics were held in high social esteem. 
In the court of the King of Wales, the seat of the monarch's chief 
smith, at table, was next to the royal chaplain. Then several 
distinct trades were practised by one man. The carpenter built 
houses and made wagons, carts, ploughs, and other agricultural 
implements, mills, and all kinds of household furniture. The 
smith made armor and weapons, iron implements of husbandry, 
and such as were required for domestic use. Women of the higher 


i At about the end of the tenth century, the prices of certain articles were as 


. follows:— 


£ s. d. 


Man or slave. 

1 pound, equivalent to 

2 16 3 

Horse, 

30 shillings, “ 

1 15 2 

Mare or colt, 

20 “ “ 

13 5 

Ass or mule, 

12 “ 

14 1 

Ox, 

6 “ “ 

7 OX 

Cow, 

5 “ “ 

5 6 

Swine, 

1 shilling and 3 pence, 

1 10X 

Sheep, 

1 shilling, “ 

1 2 

Goat, 

2 pennies, 

5X 




90 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 


[Book III. 


Woman’s Work. Agriculture. Live Stock and Grain. 

as well as lower ranks were employed in Vhe labors of the distaff, 

loom, and needle. King Edward the Elder a caused 
a § 1 p 50 7 ^ 

his daughters to be taught and employed in the use of 

such implements; and in the great Alfred’s will the feminine 

portion of his family is spoken of as the spindle-side. From the 

common use of the distaff in the Anglo-Saxon period came the 

modern name of “ spinster,” as applied to unmarried women. 

§ 17. Agriculture was the chief industrial pursuit. A greater 

portion of the population were employed in the production of 

food, and it was abundant and cheap. Meat was as common as 

bread on the tables of every class. Lands were cheap. The price 

of four sheep would buy an acre. Marl was used as a fertilizer so 

early as the Roman occupation of the island. Farms were of 

various sizes. The boundaries were defined by brooks, hedges, 

and ditches. Forests were protected by law. The value of a tree 

was estimated by the number of swine that might be gathered 

under it. Such animals, and sheep and goats, were abundant, 

and owing to the general absence of enclosures wdiere they fed, 

had tenders. No employments are more frequently mentioned 

by the old writers than those of the swineherd, shepherd, and 

goatherd. 

§ 18. The chief animal production was horned cattle. One-third 
of the land of the kingdom was devoted to their pasturage. Gar¬ 
dens, especially those attached to monasteries, were filled with 
figs, grapes, nuts, almonds, pears, and apples. Beans, peas, and 
a few other vegetables were cultivated. Flowers and flowering 
plants were also abundant, for the use of bees for honey was an 
important article before sugar was known. 

§ 19. The products of the soil give us an idea of the diet of the 
people. It was abundant and nutritious. Barley was chiefly used 
in making bread. Meats were salted for preservation. Milk, 
cheese, and eggs were in common use. Poultry was extensively 
eaten, and so were fishes. The common drink of the people was 
ale, made from malted barley; and in towns ale-houses were found 
so early as Alfred’s time. There were other more costly d rink s, 
and wine. Fuel was abundant. The cabins of the poor were 
lighted by tallow candles; and the palace of the king and dwell¬ 
ings of the nobles were illuminated by waxen candles. 

§ 20. The houses of the better class were comfortable, and some¬ 
times elegant structures; those of the poor were turf-covered 


Chapter XXII.] THE SAXON ERA. , 

How the people lived. Feasts. Personal Cleanliness. Condition of Women. 

hovels, little better than caves. The furniture of the rich was 
often elegant and costly. Chairs were in the form of camp-stools, 
and of our common seats, with backs; they were often cushioned 
and covered with richly embroidered stuff. Their bedsteads, beds, 
and bedding were much the same as those we now use, often hung 
with costly curtains. Their walls were covered with rich silk, 
embroidered with gold by the hands of the young women; their 
tables were carved, and ornamented with gold and silver; and on 
them were sometimes seen urns, dishes, knives, and spoons of the 
same metals. The dwellings of the poor, on the other hand, were 
little better furnished than those of half-savage tribes. Their beds 
were of straw and rushes; their drinking-vessels and spoons were 
made of the horns of cattle, and the seats were rude benches. 

§ 21. The sexes of both classes sat at table together, and they 
were participants in common at the feasts and convivial entertain¬ 
ments of the rich. At those feasts all ate to fulness and drank to 
exhilaration. The guests were expected to vie with each other in 
trying who should dram the drinking-cup to the lowest depth; in 
fact, excessive drinking, as among the Scandinavian ancestors of the 
Anglo-Saxons, was a common vice of all ranks of people, in which 
they spent nights and days without intermission. At these feasts 
songs and dances, and the music of the harp, were unfailing ac¬ 
companiments. The ecclesiastics were not behind laymen in 
carousing; and the monasteries often presented scenes of gam¬ 
bling, singing, dancing, and drunkenness. 

§ 22. Personal cleanliness was a virtue. The warm bath was 
daily used. When a stranger entered a house, cold water was 
brought to him to wash his hands and face, and warm water for 
his feet. Children were cleansed once a day, and were tenderly 
nurtured by women until after the period of childhood; then a 
father had a right, if poor, to give up his son to slavery for seven 
years, if the boy consented. Until a daughter was fifteen years of 
age, a father could marry her to whom he pleased; after that she 
was free to choose a husband. Women, as a rule, were treated 
with great respect and consideration, and enjoyed many rights 
and privileges as an equal of man. By law and custom they had 
a fair share of influence in society. The preliminaries of marriage 
were (1), the consent of the young woman and her friends; and (2), 
security given by the intended husband that he would support her 
and her children in a manner suitable to her social position. The 


92 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 


[Book III. 


Learning. Costumes of both Sexes. Laborers of the Country. 

nuptial ceremony was performed by a priest, and feasting fol¬ 
lowed. 

§ 23. There was very little school learning among even the 
wealthy and noble. The brothers of Alfred the Great did not 
learn to read. Some youths were instructed in monasteries, where 
all learning was centred. But at a very early age they were prac¬ 
tised in manly sports, and the chase was the chief pastime; hawk¬ 
ing was ranked next to it. 

§ 24. There is no pictorial authority for Anglo-Saxon costume 
earlier than the eighth century. The masculine attire was composed 
of a linen shirt, over which was a tunic of linen or woollen that 
descended to the knee, and was plain or ornamented round the 
collar and borders, according to the rank of the wearer. The 
tunic was open at the neck, and sometimes at the sides, and had 
long sleeves reaching to the wrists. It was generally confined at 
the waist by a girdle. Over the tunic a short cloak was worn, 
fastened on the breast or shoulder with a brooch. The legs were 
covered with linen or woollen drawers and stockings, and the feet 
were protected by leather shoes or buskins. The beard and hair 
were worn long, excepting on the upper lip, which was close 
shaven. 

§ 25. The feminine attire was composed of a long and ample 
gown of any stuff chosen, worn over a closer fitting one, in form 
like a tunic or kirtle. The former had loose sleeves, and the latter 
tight ones reaching to the wrist. The shoes and stockings were 
similar to those worn by the other sex. Over the tunic was worn 
a mantle by the higher classes, in form resembling the ecclesias¬ 
tical vestment known as a chasuble. A head-dress was made of a 
veil, or long piece of linen or silk, wrapped round the head and 
neck. The Anglo-Saxon ladies paid great attention to the arrange¬ 
ment of their hair, which they curled with heated irons. They 
wore cuffs and ribbons, brooches, ear-rings, and necklaces; to 
the latter a golden cross was sometimes suspended. In very rare 
instances gloves were worn. 

§ 26. The labor of the country during the Anglo-Saxon era 
appears to have been performed almost wholly, excepting in the 
arts and manufactures, by a kind of half-independent serfs called 
villani , and absolute slaves, the latter numbering about one-tenth 
of the population. The villani were the chief cultivators of the 
soil. No master had a right to use them as his absolute property; 


Chapter XXII.] 


THE SAXON ERA. 


93 


Serfdom. Intellectual Culture. The prevailing Language. 

yet they had not the power of reinoving from the estate on which 
they were bom; and when it was sold, they were transferred with 
it as really as Tvere the trees that grew upon it. On the other 
hand, the mllani could not be driven from the estate,—they had 
a right to stay and profit by the land they cultivated. This was 
simply the Teutonic system, of great antiquity, upon which the 
feudal system was constructed. The villctni differed in one es¬ 
sential particular from the nobility, viz., that they were wholly 
destitute of political power, though constituting by far the largest 
portion of the population. 

§ 27. Literature, Science, and Art were in a formative state during 
the Anglo-Saxon era, when the germs of what we now behold in 
the realm of British culture took powerful root. Ireland had more 
and better scholars, then, than Great Britain. By invitation of 
Charlemagne, teachers from that island established schools in the 
Western Empire. The Irish monks were the most skilful illumi¬ 
nators of manuscript books. Among the early men of letters was 
the great Irish apostle, St. Patrick. 

§ 28. The British had native historians and chroniclers, such as 
Gildas and Nennius, as early as the seventh century, who wrote in 
Greek and Latin. So too did the more eminent Bede—the “ vene¬ 
rable Bede ” —who flourished at the beginning of the eighth cen¬ 
tury. And so it was that the great mass of the people of that era, 
who could neither read Latin nor purchase costly manuscript books, 
were ignorant of their own literature. The great Alfred “did bet¬ 
ter service for his people by translating books from the ^ § i ? p . 46 . 
Latin into their native tongue. During his reign lit¬ 
erature and the fine arts received great encouragement. Schools 
were established; and in the reign of Canute, 1 * and b§1>p 68 
the closing years of the Anglo-Saxon period, higher 
seminaries of learning were founded. Among these was the 
University of Oxford. The studies in these schools were few, 
embracing grammar, arithmetic, the Greek and Latin languages, 
astronomy, and theology. 

§ 29. The language of the Anglo-Saxons was one of the dialects 
of the ancient Gothic, which so extensively prevailed in Northern 
Europe. They found that of the ancient inhabitants of Britain 
mixed with the provincial Latin introduced by the Romans. The 
Saxons almost destroyed that medley, as well as the earlier British 
tongue, and then; own became the language of the country. It 


94 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book TTT . 

Science and Art. Churches. Musicland Musical Instruments. 

remained so until after the Norman invasion, when an effort was 
made to root it out by compelling the conquered to have only the 
French language used and taught in the schools. 

§ 30. Science was very little known and cultivated during the 
Anglo-Saxon era; and then music and painting could hardly 
claim the dignity of arts. But architecture attained to considera¬ 
ble eminence. The introduction of Christianity caused the build- 
» § 2 P 20 ing of many churclles > a and on these the best skill was 
employed. Most of these sacred structures were built 
of wood and thatched; but the York Cathedral, founded by 
Edwin, b was built of stone, and had its windows 
glazed by Bishop Wilfred, the great promoter of archi¬ 
tecture, in the year 669. He called French glass-makers from 
'§il p 3 France > an d so introduced that art into Britain.® 
Numerous abbeys were built, some of them with 
considerable skill, like that of Westminster. 4 Late in the Anglo- 
d § 17 p 7S Saxon period, the Romanesque style appeared, and is 
known in England as the Norman. Of the sacred 
buildings of that era not one stone now remains upon another. 

§ 31. The Anglo-Saxons had musical instruments, of which the 
chroniclers mention the horn, trumpet, drum, flute, cymbal, rota or 
viol, lyre, and harp. They also had rude organs, an invention of 
the East, in their churches, whose pipes and bellows were of brass. 
The harp was in common use on all festive occasions. It was un¬ 
doubtedly borrowed from the Irish, among whom music was culti¬ 
vated from the remotest antiquity. So famous was the church 
music of the Irish at an early period, that the daughter of Pepin, 
King of France, sent to Ireland for persons to instruct the nuns of 
Nevelle in psalmody. 

§ 32. As we glance back over the Anglo-Saxon era, we see in the 
half-barbarous state of the people the germs of what we most prize 
in modern society, which is the product of growth and culture. 
Out of the chaos of that period, as Guizot has said, sprang all of 
order, and light, and life which our present civilization boasts of. 


b § 21, p. 36. 


BOOK IY. 


THE NORMAN RULE. 
[From a.d. 1066 to a.d. 1154.] 


CHAPTER I. 

reign of William the First, [a.d. 1066 to 1087.] 

§ 1. Before the ceremony of crowning William the Conqueror 
had ended, at which the new king swore that if his people would 
be faithful he would govern as well as any ruler before him had 
done, a tumult broke out between the Normans and the English, 
when several houses were burnt by the former, and many men 
were slain. 

§ 2. This promised badly for the tranquillity of William’s reign, 
and therefore, with the view of depriving the English of their 
natural leaders, as well as of proving to his ancient subjects the 
importance of his conquest, William, early in the spring of 1067, 
passed over into Normandy, taking with him Edgar, who bore 
the honorary title of Atheling, or the Illustrious, Stigand the arch¬ 
bishop, the Abbot Frederic, the Earls Waltheof, Edwin, and 
Morcar, a and many other nobles. A Norman chro- a g 4 p 79 
nicler tells us that all men beheld with curiosity these 
natives of Britain. “ They admired their flowing hair, and their 
garments of gold tissue enriched with studs, their gold and silver 
plate of admirable workmanship, and their hunting and drinking 
horns tipped with gold.” 

§ 8. William had left in England as governors, Odo the bishop, 
his half-brother, who was much more of a warrior than a priest, 
and William Fitzosborne, who had been created Earl of Hereford. 
These men acted so tyrannically that the English soon began to 
take up arms, and the Normans might have been speedily expelled 
but for the precaution that they had taken of building strong 
castles in or near every considerable town. These were garrisoned 



96 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book IV. 

The Norman Oppressors. The Conqueror’s Claims. His Friends rewarded. 

by large bodies of well-armed soldiers, and as their walls were too 
thick to be broken down, and too high to be scaled, they were in 
little danger of being captured. One chief, however, called Edric 
the Forester, who was the grand-nephew of Edric Streona and the 
kinsman of Harold, a gained so many successes over 
§ l, p. 71. u cas tie-men ” of Hereford, who attempted to 

drive him from his lands in Hereford and Shropshire, that a 
general rising was on the point of breaking out, when William 
hurried back from Normandy, and declaring that the discontent of 
the English absolved him from his promise to be “a 
§ 27, p. 85. lord ” b to them, he seized on the lands of most 

of the nobles, partitioned them among his followers, and laid heavy 
taxes on the whole of the people. With part of this plunder he 
founded and endowed an abbey, still known as Battle Abbey, in 
Sussex, which, under the pretext of praying for the souls of the 
slain, might serve as a monument of his triumph at Hastings. 

§ 4. At the beginning of William’s reign all the land of the 
country was assumed to belong to him by right of conquest. He, 
however, then seized only the property of Harold and his chief 
supporters, and allowed the rest of the nation to retain their pos¬ 
sessions on paying a heavy ransom. He also re-established the tax 
called Danegelt, which King Edward had remitted. Now he pro¬ 
ceeded to carry out what, in spite of his promises, no doubt was 
his original intention, and he divided the whole country into 60,000 
portions, which were termed knights’ fees, the greater part of which 
he granted to his chief officers, but he also kept vast estates in his 
own hands. 

§ 5. The persons who received these grants were termed tenants 
in chief, and instead of rent they were bound to find one fully 
equipped horseman and about six light-armed attendants, who 
were to serve the king for forty days in each year, without pay, for 
each fee. The whole were granted to about 1,400 persons, who, in 
their turn, granted portions to others, called under-tenants, for like 
services as they themselves had to render to the king. 

§ 6. This great change in the country is known as the establish¬ 
ment of the Feudal System—the principles and constitution of 
feuds, or lands held by military service. Something like it, on 
a limited scale, had been in use among the Saxons,® 
’ ’ ' but William extended it over the whole country, and 

on so firm a basis that many parts of it exist to this day, though 


Chatter L] THE NORMAN RULE. ' 97 

The Feudal System. How it worked. Its Effects. 

its most oppressive features, which he had introduced, have for¬ 
tunately long disappeared. It supplied him, without expense, 
with a large army, and also produced a revenue that his prede¬ 
cessors had never enjoyed. Some account of what is termed “the 
feudal incidents ” is necessary for the proper understanding of the 
history of this period, which is known as the Middle Ages. 

§ 7. So long as the feudal system existed in full force, each person, 
beside doing homage and taking an oath to maintain the king’s 
quarrel against all men, had, on obtaining possession of his land, even 
though his father had held it before him, to pay a sum of money, 
called a relief; for on the death of each tenant the land was taken 
into the king’s hands, and it was not restored to the heir until an 
inquiry had been made (termed Inquisitio post mortem ) as to what 
it consisted of, what payments were due, whether any pari had been 
unlawfully parted with, and who was the heir, and what was his 
age. If the heir was a minor, the property was kept in charge, and 
what remained of its produce after his maintenance was paid for 
was at the royal disposal. Hence it became a very common mode 
of enriching favorites to grant them the custody of a wealthy ward. 

§ 8. When the heir at length obtained possession, he was, if in 
the first rank of chief tenants, bound to attend the king to give him 
his counsel. This was the origin of the British House of Peers. 
The heir had to accompany the king to the wars, and ordinarily 
had some special duties to perform—to be his constable (or general 
of his army), his marshal (or leader of cavalry), his standard-bearer, 
his chamberlain, or his steward. All the tenants had to pay occa¬ 
sional sums of money, called aids , on the knighting of the king’s 
eldest son, the marriage of his eldest daughter, or his own captivity, 
when a heavy ransom would be due to his enemies. These dues, 
which the chief tenants paid to the king, were in turn rendered to 
them by their under-tenants, who also did homage to them, and 
swore to maintain their quarrel against all men, excepting the king; 
but they frequently disregarded this clause, so that the great barons 
had little difficulty in making war on the sovereign, who was rather 
the first among them than a king, as generally understood. 

§ 9. But the feudal system bore the hardest where a benevolent 
ruler would wish to make it light. On the death of a tenant the 
horse and arms of the deceased became the property of the superior 
lord, and had to be redeemed by the payment of a sum of money 
called a heriot. If he died without an heir, the fee (as it was 
5 


98 


HISTORY OF EXGLAND. 


Burdens of the Feudal System. 


[Book IV. 

The Knight and his Vocation. 


termed) was forfeited to the lord, as it could neither be sold nor 
bequeathed by will; and, hardest of all, his widow could be given 
in marriage, without her own consent, to whomsoever the king 
pleased; hence money was often paid for permission to remain in 
widowhood. His sons, if under age, and his daughters, even if of 
age, were also at the king’s disposal, and could be given in mar¬ 
riage in like manner against their will. It was considered an act 
of grace to accept a sum of money from them for leave to follow 
their own inclinations. 

§ 10. These were all acknowledged and well-understood burdens, 
but they were made heavier by many of the kings, who exacted 
“ unreasonable aids,” which gave rise to the discontents that Magna 
Charta was intended to appease; and the claim of homage and 
investiture occasioned a long series of disputes and jealousies 
between the State and the Church, the beginning of which we 
shall have to notice in the next reign. 

§ 11. Such is a brief view of the system that the Normans intro¬ 
duced. Under their kings it remained unchanged, but the first of 
the restored Saxon line (Henry the Second) effected a change that 
gradually brought about its fall. He allowed his knights and nobles 
the option of paying a sum termed scutage (or shield money) instead 
of personal service, and with these funds he and his successors were 
enabled to hire troops who owed no fealty to any other lord, and, 
unlike the military tenants, were bound to serve all the year 
round. Such were the mercenaries of King John, who supported 
his cause against the barons. 

§ 12. Though the word is a Saxon one, it is under William that 
we first hear of knights, and it may be necessary to say that the 
knight was a soldier, who had already served in the capacity of 
squire or attendant on some other knight, and had been by some 
king, or bishop, or knight, admitted to the higher degree. He took 
an oath to be courteous and faithful, the protector of the innocent 
and the oppressed, and was girded with a sword, which he vowed 
never to draw except in the’ cause of right. The knight fought on 
horseback, and he was accompanied to the field by five or six 
spearmen or archers, who were ready either to secure or kill any 
opponent that he might conquer, or to come to the rescue if he 
was in danger. The oath of the knight' was no doubt kept by 
thousands of individuals, but it certainly did not influence William 
or his great men in their conduct to the vanquished English. 


Chapter I.] THE NORMAN RULE. ' 99 

Hatred between the English and Normans. Civil War and Foreign Invasion. 

§ 13. Soon after William’s return, Edgar Atheling, a with his 
mother and sisters, fled to Scotland, and many of the a g 2 p g 5 
despoiled nobles and others joined them. The hatred 
of the people to the Normans grew greater every day, and Wil¬ 
liam, confident in his strength, took no means to conciliate them. 
The mother of Harold b had found refuge in Exeter, b § J p ?g 
which the inhabitants had fortified, and where they 
cut oft a party of Normans that were driven by bad weather into 
their port. The city was captured after an eighteen days’ siege, 
but this did not prevent a much more formidable outbreak in the 
north. 

§ 14. William had allowed Cospatric, a grand-nephew of Ed¬ 
ward the Confessor,® to hold the earldom of Nor- c ^ p 
thumberland, but he now displaced him, and ap¬ 
pointed instead another Saxon named Copsi. This man, by tak¬ 
ing the office, became so hateful that he was murdered in a 
church in a month after. Cospatric, who had fled to Scotland, 
now returned and took up arms. Edgar Atheling joined him, 
and William was forced to march against them. On his way he 
built forts at Nottingham and Lincoln, and when he reached 
York the Saxons retired to Scotland. William built two castles 
at York, placed 3,000 soldiers in them, and bestowed the earldom 
of Northumberland on Robert de Comine, a Norman, who took 
his post at Durham with a strong garrison. 

§ 15. During William’s absence the sons of Harold had landed 
in Somersetshire, but they were opposed by Ednoth, who had 
been their father’s standard-bearer. Ednoth w~as killed, but they 
were unsuccessful in their attempt and withdrew to Ireland. 

§ 16. The year 1069 was one of desperate fighting. De Comine 
and his garrison of 900 men were all put to death in January, and 
Edgar Atheling prepared for another invasion. In the autumn, 
a Danish fleet of 240 ships arrived in the Humber, when Edgar, 
and Cospatric, and Merleswain, and other nobles joined them. 
York was captured, the castles were demolished, and the 3,000 
Normans, with mercenaries, were put to the sword almost to a 
man, probably in revenge for their having plundered and burnt 
the city and the cathedral. William was hunting in the forest of 
Dean when he heard of the disaster, and he swore “ by the splen¬ 
dors of the Almighty” that he would utterly exterminate the 
Northumbrian people. He marched against the invadeis, when 


100 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book IV. 

Terrible Devastations. The War Continued. William’s Exactions. 

they retired to their ships, and remained in the Humber during 
the*winter. He also remained in the north, and he employed the 
time in devastating the country around him. So effectually was 
this done, that in a tract of full sixty miles in extent, between the 
Humber and the Tees, not a house was left standing, the crops 
and the. cattle were destroyed, and the people perished by thou¬ 
sands from famine. A writer who lived sixty years later assures 
us that it was a desert in his time. Confiscation of lands became 
general, and William’s vengeance was almost satiated. 

§ 17. This barbarity, however, did not break the spirit of the 
English. In the following spring a Danish fleet, commanded by 
King Sweyn himself, joined that already in the Humber. The peo¬ 
ple of East Anglia readily submitted to him, and Christiem, a 
Danish bishop, established himself at Ely. The fleet now came 
ig 66 into the Thames, when William, acting like Ethelred 
§ is, p. 66. -[J nrea dy, a bribed them to withdraw. 

§ 18. William’s conquest of England was by no means yet 
complete. Hereward, the younger brother of Edwin and Morcar, 
had plundered and burnt the abbey of Peterborough, -where Tho- 
rold, a stem Norman, had replaced a beloved Saxon abbot, and 
then throwing himself into the isle of Ely, he was there joined 
by thousands of resolute men, and for a long time defied all 
William’s efforts to reduce him. 

§ 19. Meantime nothing was neglected by the Normans that 
could provoke fresh risings, and serve a ? the plea for fresh con¬ 
fiscations. William at his coming had professed great regard for 
the Church, and had granted charters of privilege to many ab¬ 
beys. These were now resumed, and the treasures th.at had been 
laid up there, as in a place of security that no Christian ruler 
b § 0 p 9“ wou ld touch, were seized; Stigand, b the archbishop, 
was deposed and imprisoned, but escaped to Scot¬ 
land, while Agelric, formerly bishop of Durham, died in confine¬ 
ment. Wulstan, the bishop of Worcester, who was esteemed a 
saint, and a worker of miracles, was threatened with deprivation 
because he did not understand the Norman tongue; but he was so 
highly esteemed by the people that it was not deemed prudent to 
remove him. The sees as they became vacant were filled with 
Norman monks, one of whom, Lanfranc, who became Archbishop 
of Canterbury, was an exemplary man; but others, as Thomas, 
appointed to York, and Walcher to Durham, and Gundulf to 


Chapter L] THE NORMAN RULE. • iUi 

Tyranny of the Normans. Civil War. William’s Family Troubles. 

Rochester, and Robert to Hereford, were turbulent and tyrannical. 
Walcher, who was particularly odious, was put to death in his 
own church. 

§ 20. To these acts, which deeply afflicted the English, so much 
were they in general attached to the clergy, was added the lawless 
tyranny of the hordes of “ castle-men ” who were scattered over 
every part of the country, and made the people feel their heavy 
hands as masters. Among other indignities they ordered fires and 
lights to be extinguished at a certain hour, which was announced 
by a bell (since known as the couvre feu or “ curfew bell”) ; and 
though this was an old Norman, Scotch, Italian, and Spanish 
regulation for the prevention of fires, it was regarded by the Saxons 
as a badge of slavery. 

§ 21. William advanced against the isle of Ely in 1071, with a 
fleet as well as an army, and though it was desperately defended 
it was at last taken, through the treachery of some monks. .Edwin 
had been already killed, but his brother Morcar was now captured, 
and their sister Lucy was obliged to'marry Ivo de Tailbois, a Nor¬ 
man, to whom their inheritance was granted. Many other prison¬ 
ers were made, but Hereward, the last hero of Anglo-Saxon inde¬ 
pendence, cut his way through, and with a small band of fol¬ 
lowers, the chronicler tells us, “ went out triumphantly. He 
was soon afterward treacherously killed by some Bretons, and 
Edric the Forester having been about the same time captured, 
the conquest of England was at last achieved, in the fifth year 
after William’s landing. 

§ 22. The remainder of the Conqueror’s reign was, however, by 
no means peaceable. In 1075 some of his Norman nobles con¬ 
spired against'him, and invited aid from Denmark. The plot was 
disclosed, and it is chiefly remarkable as it was made the pretext 
for putting to death Waltheof, the son of Siward, the great Earl 
of Northumberland, who was regarded as the sole remaining 
champion of the people. Afterwards William’s son Robert rebelled 
ao-ainst him, for the purpose of gaining for himself the rule of the 
duchy of Normandy, which his father had promised him. In a 
skirmish at Gerberoi, William was wounded and thrown from his 
horse by his son, who, recognizing his father’s voice as he called 
for assistance, raised him and implored his forgiveness, which the 
angry king would not readily grant. . _ 

§ 23. William made several foreign expeditions, in which e 


102 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 


[Book IY. 


William’s Operations on the Continent. Wales Subdued. Royal Hunting-Grounds. 


readily availed himself of the services of the English, though 
in England every office of honor or trust was closed against them. 
In 1072 he invaded Scotland, and in the following year he sub¬ 
dued Maine, but in 1076 he failed in an attack on Brittany. In 
1079 the Scots burst into England, but they were driven back by 
Robert of Normandy, who had received his father’s pardon and 
accompanied him to England. To restrain the Scots he built a 
strong castle on the river, and around this the important town of 
Newcastle-upon-Tyne gradually grew up. 

§ 24. In 1081 William marched into Wales, and received the hom¬ 
age of many of its chiefs. The country was nominally subject to 
England when the Normans came, and as early as 1067 a fortress 
called Baldwin’s Castle was built by an adventurer of that name 
where the castle of Montgomery now stands ; but it was not until 
thirty years later that they gained a firm footing in the country. 

§ 25. On one of the occasions of William’s passing over to Nor¬ 
mandy, Edgar Atheling repaired to him, and was well received. 
He soon became a friend of Robert, and accompained him in 
many of his expeditions. His sister Margaret had married Mal¬ 
colm the Third, king of Scotland, and through her daughter the 
Saxon line was eventually restored to the throne. 

§ 26. In 1082 Odo a the bishop, William’s half-brother, who 
a § 3 p 95 as P* re( l to be Pope, fell into disgrace, and was im¬ 
prisoned for the remainder of the king’s life. He 
was Earl of Kent as well as bishop, and when some of his friends 
ventured to remonstrate on his captivity, William replied that he 
would never think of imprisoning a bishop, but he would deal 
with the Earl of Kent as he chose. 

§ 27. About this period two events occurred which are very re¬ 
markable in the reign of William. In 1079 he greatly enlarged the 
hunting grounds which adjoined the old palace of Winchester, and 
formed what has ever since been known as the New Forest. To do 
this he seized on the neighboring estates; but the country seems 
always to have been very thinly inhabited, the soil in general being 
too poor to repay cultivation, which renders unlikely the common 
tale that many churches and villages were destroyed to make room 
for the game. . Other forests were made or enlarged, and Wil¬ 
liam, who “ loved the tall deer as if he was their father,” enacted 
laws that whoever killed a hart, a hind, or a boar, should be 
blinded. This forest code, as it was termed, also imposed penal- 


Chapter I.] THE NORMAN RULE. . 103 

Domesday Book and its Revelations. Preparations for an Invasion. 

ties on trespassers, and directed that all dogs in the neighborhood 
of the forests should be muzzled and have their claws pared. 
Neglect of these and a thousand more minute matters was made 
the pretext for ruinous fines and confiscations. 

§ 28. The other event was the formation of the famous record 
called Domesday Book, which is still preserved in the Public 
Record Oflice. This was compiled by a body of commissioners 
in the year 1085, in which is recorded the value of all the property 
for the greater part of the kingdom, who were its then present hold¬ 
ers, and who had held it in the time of King Edward.® a g 2 p 73 
It shows that the leaders at the battle of Hastings 
had been well provided for, and that much the greater part of the 
property of the Saxons had been confiscated. William’s half- 
brothers, Robert Earl of Mortaigne, and Odo the bishop, had 1232 
manors. The first had 793 and the second 439, and William him¬ 
self had nearly 1300, though King Edward had possessed but 165, 
and Harold only 118. These eminent men, however, were not the 
only ones who profited by the confiscations. The Ab- b s p Q5 
bey of Battle b had manors in seven counties, and 
even menial servants (if foreigners) were rewarded in the same way. 
The names of the cook, the falconer, the steward, the carpenter, 
the farrier, and the porter appear along with those of the proudest 
nobles. The survey was intended to serve as a guide for appor¬ 
tioning taxation, and it bears indisputable evidence of William’s 
bad government. Although the sums to be paid by the towns for 
his protection were greatly increased in amount, property in general 
was returned as of less value than in the time of King Edward. 

§ 29. William’s reign was now drawing to a close. In 1085 a 
league was formed against him by the kings of Denmark and 
Norway and the Count of Flanders, and a . fleet collected by 
them for an invasion. William levied taxes three times heavier 
than before, hired soldiers from abroad, and with his truly bar¬ 
barous policy laid waste the sea-coast. The confederates, how¬ 
ever, quarrelled, the King of Denmark was killed by his own men, 
and the enterprise was abandoned. 

§ 30. As soon as this danger was over, William collected a vast 
sum of money and passed over to the continent, to make war on 
the French king. His troops burnt the town of Mantes, including 
all the churches, and two hermits who dwelt in them; but there 
the Conqueror also met with his death. His horse stepped on 


104 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book IV. 

William's Ravages on the Continent. His signs of Penitence and his Death. 

some hot ashes, and plunging violently, braised his rider so 
that he was obliged to return to Rouen. There he lay sick at the 
priory of St. Gervaise a few weeks, and then died on the 9th of 
September, 1087. He showed some softening of heart before he 
departed, and ordered the release of Earl Morcar,* the 

a § 21 ’ p- 10L brother, and Alfga.r and Wulfnoth, the sons of Harold, 
as well as some Norman prisoners; but it was with difficulty that 
he could be brought to pardon his ambitious and warlike brother, 
Odo the bishop. His son Robert was then at the court of the King 
of France; but he left him the duchy of Normandy as his birth¬ 
right. To William, whom he praised as a dutiful son, he gave 
his splendid conquest of England, and advised him to hasten over 
and secure it; while to his youngest son, Henry, he gave £5,000 
in silver instead of domains, and the young prince is recorded to 
have been very careful in seeing it weighed, lest there should be 
any deficiency. This point ascertained, he departed, as his brother 
William had already done, and very soon afterward the great 
Duke of Normandy and King of England expired. 

§ 81. A woeful scene followed the death of the Conqueror. 
The nobles, anticipating war between Robert and William, re¬ 
tired in haste to their own castles. The physicians and chief 
attendants departed, and the menial servants, left without con¬ 
trol, seized whatever precious effects they could find, and fled 
from the priory, leaving the corpse on the floor. At length a 
knight named Herluin, from Christian charity, conveyed it to 
Caen, where it was to be buried in the church of St. Stephen, 
which William had founded. 

§ 32. When the body arrived the clergy went out in solemn 
procession to meet it; but just as they reached the church a fire 
broke out in the town, and in the confusion the corpse was left in 
the street. At length the monks got into the church and per¬ 
formed the usual service; and when the body was to be lowered 
into the grave, the Bishop of Evreux preached a sermon, which 
he concluded by requesting any one who had been offended or 
injured by the late king to forgive him. Then a man named 
Ascelin, the son of Arthur, rose up and vehemently complained 
that the ground on which the church stood had been unjustly 
seized from his father, and added, “In the name of God, I forbid 
you to bury the spoiler in.iny inheritance! ” A great tumult fol¬ 
lowed, but the man’s tale was found to be true, and he received a 


THE NORMAN RULE. 


105 


Chapter II.] 


The Conqueror’s Successor. His first Acts. Prisoners Released. 

sum of money in hand and a promise of full compensation before 
the ceremony was allowed to proceed. 

§ 33. A Saxon chronicler, who says that he had oft looked on 
William in his court, has drawn his character. “He was,” he 
tells us, “wise and rich, mild to good men, but beyond all mea¬ 
sure severe to those who withstood his will. In his time men had 
many sorrows. Rich men moaned, and poor men trembled; but 
he was so stem, he recked not the hatred of them all, for they must 
follow his will, if they would have lands or even life.” 


CHAPTER II. 

reign of William the Second, [a.d. 1087-1100.] 

§ 1. William, the second surviving son of the Conqueror, who 
was surnamed “ Rufus,” or the red, because of his extremely florid 
complexion, seems to have more closely resembled his father than 
either of his brothers. He was the Conqueror’s third son, and was 
born at about the year 1060. Like him he was an able soldier, 
active, fierce, and resolute; and also like him lie was most extor¬ 
tionate and oppressive to his people, and ever bent on extending 
his dominion. 

§ 2. While the Conqueror lay on his death-bed, William Rufus, 
as he had been directed, hurried over to England. He had a firm 
friend in Lanfranc the archbishop, a and being there- a § ^ p m 
fore well received by the Normans (for the Saxons 
were allowed no voice in the matter), he was crowned by him 
[Sept. 26, a.d. 1087] very soon after his arrival. 1 He then repaired 
to Winchester, where the royal treasure was kept; and he showed 
his obedience to his father’s injunctions not only by making a 
profuse distribution of money, giving sums to every church in the 
land for prayers for William’s soul, but also by setting free a large 
number of prisoners. Some of these were Saxons, and the act was 
very acceptable to their countrymen; but others were Normans, 

i From William the First to Henry the Third, inclusive, the reign of each king was 
considered to commence only at his coronation, the doctrine of hereditary right to the 
crown not being fully accepted, and requiring to be strengthened by the open declara¬ 
tion of the people that they were willing to receive the new ruler. 



106 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 


[Book IV. 


Robert of Normandy. Conspirators at work. Fate of a bad Bishop. 

and many of these showed their ingratitude by conspiring against 
him. 

§ 3. Robert, his elder brother, had taken possession of Nor¬ 
mandy and seemed willing to remain there, but Odo the bishop, 
who became his chief counsellor, wishing to revenge his former 
imprisonment, which he attributed to Lanfranc, resolved if pos¬ 
sible to drive William from the throne. He engaged Robert to 
send troops in the spring of 1088, and passing over at once to 
England himself, he induced many of the Norman lords to take 
up arms and ravage the royal lands, while others, who professed 
to adhere to William, only waited for an opportunity to betray 
him. Finding his troops were not to be depended on, he, by the 
advice of Lanfranc, called on the Saxons for aid, promising them 
good government. Partly from gratitude for the release of the kin¬ 
dred of Harold, but far more from hatred of the Normans, they 
readily flocked to his standard, Wulstan, the Saxon bishop already 
19 100 men ti° ne< l’ a encouraging, them to do so. William 

’ P ’ had accompanied his father in his campaigns, and 
was skilful in war; therefore he very soon overcame his adver¬ 
saries, driving them out of the strong castles of Tunbridge and 
Pevensey. 

§ 4. As the succors that he expected from Normandy never 
came, Odo the bishop was obliged to shut himself up in the castle 
of Rochester. There he was besieged; and though the Norman 
lords held back as far as they dared, many of them having rela¬ 
tives in the castle, the Saxons pressed on the siege so vigorously 
that the garrison was soon obliged to surrender. William at first 
threatened to put them all to death, but at last he granted them 
then* lives on condition of forfeiting their estates and quitting 
the kingdom. The Saxons of Kent, who had been terribly op¬ 
pressed by Odo when he was earl of that county, crowded around 
him and his men as they marched out, and cried, “ Bring halters, 
bring halters for the traitor bishop! ” His fellow-countrymen, how¬ 
ever, saved him from then hands, but he never returned to England. 

§ 5. When this danger was past, William took no care to re¬ 
deem his promise of good government, although Lanfranc, as long 
as he lived, had influence enough to keep him from any very gross 
acts of tyranny. But when the good archbishop died [a.d. 1089], 
the king took for his chief adviser a low-born Norman named 
Ralph, who, though called his chaplain, acted as his judge, but 


Chapter II.] 


THE NORMAN RULE. 


107 


‘ § 27, p. 102. 


A vicious Counsellor. The People Oppressed. Normandy wretched. 

travelled about the country more intent on extorting bribes than 
on administering justice. This man was styled Le Flambcird, the 
name by which he is still known in history, and he is thus likened 
to a firebrand by which the whole country is set in a blaze. Mainly 
through his pernicious counsels, the remainder of William’s reign 
was one continued scene of misrule and oppression. The bishops’ 
sees as they fell vacant were kept so, and their revenues spent by 
the king; the possessions of the monasteries were seized, and the 
monks almost starved on a scanty pittance. The lands were sur¬ 
veyed and taxed anew, offices and honors were sold, and the forest 
laws, 11 one of the great grievances of the Saxons, 
were made even more rigorous than before, while the 
extent of the forests was added to. The court swarmed with 
worthless and cruel men, who were William’s chief favorites, and 
they and their attendants practised every oppression and outrage. 
They accompanied him in his journeys, and wherever they came 
the poor people fled from them as from a foreign enemy. And no 
wonder, as we read that, not content with “living at free quarter,” 
as it was termed, on their departure they often trampled under 
foot the bread that they did not choose to eat, washed their horses’ 
feet in the ale, and burnt the building that they had lodged in. 

§ 6. Meanwhile Normandy was in as wretched a condition under 
the careless misgovernment of Robert. The great lords made war 
on each other, and one especially, Robert de Belesme, who had 
been besieged in Rochester Castle along with Odo, b 
became the terror of the whole country. He seized 
the castles of many of his neighbors, and preferred torturing the 
inhabitants to death to enriching himself by their ransoms. As 
if bent on making as many enemies as possible, he supplied him¬ 
self with money by plundering the churches. William gave 
bribes to him and to many other Norman barons, and they in 
return admitted his troops into their castles, so that Robert soon 
had little more than the title of duke. He was always poor, and 
thus had been induced to sell a large district, called the Cotentin, 
with several strong forts, to his brother Henry; but he was also 
jealous and passionate, and when Henry and Robert de Belesme 
returned from a visit to England, thinking that they had been 
plotting against him, he seized them as they set foot on shore and 
imprisoned them, but, ever inconstant in his purposes, he soon set 
them at liberty. 


•> § 4, p. 106. 


108 


HI STORY OF ENGLAND. [Book IV. 

Fratricidal “War. War against the Scotch and Welsh. Treachery. 

§ 7. The partisans of William Rufus now took up arms, and 
had nearly succeeded in gaining possession of Rouen, the capital 
of Robert, when the town was preserved by the bravery of Henry, 
who had good reason to fear that his own district of the Cotentin 
would be seized, as well as the rest of the duchy, in the event of 
their success. Robert., though usually courageous, was now seized 
with sudden fear, and fled to a neighboring monastery. Soon 
afterwards William arrived in Normandy, and resided there in 
royal state for several months. The king and the duke now 
joined in making war on their brother Henry, who was driven 
into exile. Next an agreement was made, whereby Robert ceded 
many castles to William, and William agreed to restore their for¬ 
feited English lands to Robert’s friends. At last the brothers 
returned to England together, when Robert took the field against 
os the invading Scots, a and drove them from Nor¬ 

thumberland ; but finding that William was slow to 
perform his part of the agreement, he returned in anger to Nor¬ 
mandy in the year 1091. 

§ 8. The affairs of Wales next engaged the attention of William. 
In the preceding reign many Normans had settled on the border, and 
had begun to mix themselves up in its affairs. In 1089 Jestyn, a 
subordinate Welsh chief,' rebelled against Rhvs ap Tudor, the 
prince of South Wales, but was defeated. Einion, a Welshman 
who had served in the Norman armies, procured him the help of 
Robert Fitzhamon and twelve other knights, who, with 3,000 me;*, 
invaded Wales and defeated and killed Rhys ap Tudor. But 
Jestyn soon found that his treacherous allies had fought not for 
him, but for themselves. They speedily quarrelled with him and 
drove him out, and while they established Einion as their vassal 
in the interior, seized upon the sea-coast, which they erected into 
a kind of independent state called the Honor of Glamorgan. 
They secured themselves by building in it eighteen strong castles, 
the ruins of which are now among the most picturesque objects in 
South Wales. 

§ 9. The success of these adventurers encouraged others to 
apply to William for leave to make what acquisitions they could, 
and, as he claimed to be the superior lord of Wales, their prayer 
was readily granted. “ The Norman spoilers had tasted the sweet¬ 
ness of the land,” says an old Welsh chronicler, and they poured 
into it in every quarter. The district bordering on the Severn 


Chapter II.] THE NORMAN RULE. . 109 

The Struggle in Wales. The Welsh Subdued. The King Pious when Sick. 

(termed Powys) was soon occupied, and all along the coasts of 
South and West Wales castles and colonies of Normans and 
Flemings were planted. The Welsh, though badly armed, strove 
fiercely against the intruders, and long kept all their posts in a 
state of siege. They usually carried only short swords and spears, 
and it was a point of honor among them not to wear armor, which 
they considered only fit for a coward. Yet they hesitated not to 
throw themselves on the heavy-armed Normans, and they were 
often successful against them. If defeated, their great fleetness of 
foot (for they had no cavalry) made pursuit useless, and they were 
ready to return to the attack at the first favorable .opportunity. 
According to their own historians, they more than once cleared the 
land of the spoilers, and it is* certain that they destroyed Baldwin’s 
Castle,® near Montgomery, surprised and slaughtered a ^ ^ 

many of the scattered garrisons, retook Anglesey and 
Brecknock, and often made plundering incursions into England 
as far as Chester and Worcester. 

§ 10. But the Normans persevered, and using their usual policy 
of selling their aid first to one, then to another of the numerous 
claimants of the sovereignty who arose after the death of Rhys ap 
Tudor, they so weakened the country that they eventually estab¬ 
lished themselves in all but the mountainous region of Gwynnetli, 
or North Wales, which maintained a semblance of independence 
for 200 years longer. Under the pretext of guarding against the 
Welsh, the Norman settlers along the course of the Severn and the 
Wye formed a league, of which the Mortimers, lords of Wigmore, 
were the head. These Lords Marchers, or Borderers, considered 
themselves almost independent, and they took a conspicuous part 
in the civil wars of the time of Henry the Third. 

§11. In the year 1093 William fell ill, and whilst in fear of 
death he was induced to appoint Anselm, an Italian monk, arch¬ 
bishop of Canterbury, the see having been vacant four years. He 
also made restitution of part of the church property, but on his 
recovery it was again seized, and the other bishops’ sees and mon¬ 
asteries were still kept in his hands, and supplied the chief funds 
for his foreign wars. These and other causes of dispute at length 
drove the good and learned Anselm into exile, and he remained 
abroad as long as the king lived. 

§ 12. Soon after William’s recovery he was visited at Gloucester 
by Malcolm, king of Scotland, to treat for peace, but nothing was 


110 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book IY. 

Invasion by Sc^ts. War in North of England. Royal Troops Conquerors. 

agreed on, and Malcolm in the following November invaded 
Northumberland, when he fell unarmed into an ambuscade near 
Alnwick and was killed, along with his eldest son. His queen, 
Margaret (the sister of Edgar Atheling), a after com- 
a ^ 13, p " mending her remaining children to the care of the 
Scottish nobles, distributed her goods to the poor, and entering a 
church to pray for her husband’s soul, she died before the service 
was ended. William attempted to gain possession of Scotland by 
supporting Duncan, a pretender to the throne, and supplying him 
with money and men; but after a short usurpation he was killed 
[a.d. 1094]. The throne was then seized by Donald Bane, the 
brother of Malcolm, who in his turn was defeated by Edgar, his 
nephew, and died in prison. 

§ 13. Donald Bane had driven out a great number of Norman 
and Saxon exiles who had been sheltered by his brother, and these 
desperate men, having then no refuge from the tyranny of William, 
engaged in an attempt to make at least the north' of England in¬ 
dependent of him, if they could not succeed in driving liim from 
the throne. Robert Mowbray, the Earl of Northumberland, having 
been ordered to restore some Norwegian ships that he had seized, 
refused to do so, and gathering the outlaws about him he put him¬ 
self at their head. William marched promptly against the insur¬ 
gents, escaped an attempt to assassinate him, and captured New¬ 
castle and other towns. At last he blocked up Mowbray in 
Bamborough Castle, and to prevent his escape built a tower, which, 
with a grim kind of wit, he styled Mai Yoisin (or Bad Neighbor), 
near to his stronghold. He then departed on an expedition into 
Wales, and when he returned he found that Mowbray had been 
made a prisoner whilst foraging, though Bamborough still held 
out. Mowbray was now compelled, by the threat of having his 
-eyes put out, to order his wife to surrender the castle, when he was 
sent "to Windsor and kept for awhile in a dungeon, but was 
at last allowed to become a monk at St. Alban’s. Many of his 
partisans were put to death, and several others were cruelly 
mutilated. 

§ 14. This terrible example seems to have prevented any similar 
attempts during the rest of William’s reign, and he was thus able 
to turn his whole attention to enlarging his dominions in Normandy. 
In this project he was very successful, though not entirely by war. 
He induced his brother Henry to join him against Robert, and 


Chapter II.] THE NORMAN RULE. Ill 

Robert of Normandy joins the Crusaders. Aim and Character of the Crusades. 

between their attacks and the treachery of Robert de Belesme, the 
whole country was soon brought under William’s obedience. 
Robert, therefore, altogether wearied with and unfit for the cares 
of government, readily agreed to pledge his states for five years to 
William on the payment of 10,000 marks of silver, and with the 
money he equipped himself for the expedition which about this 
time was set on foot, and is known as the First Crusade. William 
raised the money by a general plunder of the monasteries, and not 
content with having thus acquired Normandy free of cost, he also 
set about adding to it the neighboring territory of Maine, which 
had been conquered and kept in subjection (though with difficulty) 
by his father, but had made itself independent of the careless and 
slothful Robert. 

§ 15. The crusades were expeditions by the Christian nations of 
Western Europe for the recovery of the Holy Land from the 
Turks, who obstructed Christian pilgrimages to Jerusalem. This 
was the pretext of popes and princes. The fact was, that the 
throne and the dominions of the Christian emperor at Constan¬ 
tinople were threatened with seizure by the Turks, and he wished 
to weaken their power. The Pope, who claimed to be universal 
bishop, wished to bring the Greek, or Eastern Christian Church 
under his dominion. So pope and emperor declared that if the 
Christians did not go to the East the Mussulmen would come to the 
West; and measures were taken to fire the hearts of all Europe 
with a zeal for rescuing the holy sepulclire from the hands of the 
infidel—a motive more powerful than any political consider¬ 
ations. 

§ 16. A native of Picardy, known as Peter the Hermit, who had 
been a witness of the sufferings of the Christian pilgrims, went 
from city to city, and from kingdom to kingdom, under the 
sanction of the Pope, telling the people in glowing language of 
the atrocities of the Turks. The sentiment was wide-spread— 
the holy sepulchre must be taken from the hands of the infidel. 
The Pope called a general council of princes and nobles, prelates, 
priests, and knights. War upon the Turks was declared to have 
been ordered by God. Every one who should engage in it was 
directed to wear upon his breast or shoulder a red cross, and he 
was called a croise or Crusader. 

§ 17. Among those who earliest bore the symbol of the atone¬ 
ment and joined in the armed pilgrimage toward Jerusalem, which 

* 


112 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book IV. 

Fate of the first Crusadei’s. What the Crusaders accomplished. A bad Man in Office. 

was led by Peter, was Robert of Normandy, his uncle Odo the 
bishop,* and Edgar Atheling. b That first crusading 

§3, p. 10). armv p er j s ] iec l without seeing Jerusalem.* Odo died 

b R 2 p yo. ~ t *— 

on the journey, and Robert returned. The next cru¬ 
sade was more successful; and finally Jerusalem was taken by 
the Christian warriors [July 15, 1099], when Godfrey of Bouillon 
was proclaimed king of the conquered domain. 

§ 18. During a period of almost two hundred years these wars 
were carried on with the greatest atrocity. The Mussulmen soon 
drove the Christians from Jerusalem, and efforts for its recovery 
prolonged the struggle. They were cruel and unholy wars, 
promoted and fostered for the gratification of princes and nobles, 
pontiffs and prelates. When the Christian warriors found out by 
experience that Mussulmen were as true men as themselves, and 
not monsters, they would not consent to desolate their land, and 
murder the people without a cause ; and the crusades ceased be¬ 
cause men would no longer be duped with the dishonest cry, The 
holy sepulchre must be taken from the hands of the infidel! 

§ 19. The crusades failed to accomplish the object for which 
they were ostensibly begun; but their effects were beneficent. 
They extended the area of commerce, and brought nations into 
closer and more friendly communion. They opened the way for 
the light of science and the arts to spread over and benefit Europe. 
From the more enlightened people of the East, the ignorant and 
bigoted warriors of the West learned the sciences of medicine, 
astronomy, and algebra, and the use of our Arabic numerals, so 
much more convenient than those of the Romans; also of sugar, 
linen, paper, chimneys, windmills, and many other things so 
common in our day. And so it was that the crusaders contribu¬ 
ted important elements of our present civilization. They also 
foiled the intentions of the Mohammedans to seize Europe as a 
possession and force the religion of the Arabian Prophet upon 
the people. 

§ 20. In the year 1096 William, bishop of Durham, died, and 
after an interval of three years the see was bestowed on LeFlambard , 
who had long been the justiciary and treasurer, and indeed chief 
minister of William. This man, who was of a handsome pre¬ 
sence and a lively wit, was as rapacious and profuse as his master, 
and as he kept a noble household, he was always surrounded by 
dependents who were ready to execute any of his commands. 


Chapter II. ] THE NORMAN RULE. ' 113 

Grievous Oppressions. Operations of a bold Leader. Condition of Normandy. 

whether lawful or unlawful. He was indefatigable in devising 
schemes to fill the royal treasury, and his exactions supplied the 
funds which William employed in corrupting the vassals of his 
brother Robert. When they were no longer wanted for this pur¬ 
pose, they were employed in building a new wall round the Tower 
of London, a bridge over the river Thames, and a great hall in the 
palace at Westminster; “and men were grievously oppressed,” 
says a chronicler, “ and many perished thereby.” 

§ 21. When Duke Robert had gone to the crusade, Robert de 
Belesme, as William’s general in Normandy, labored incessantly to 
conquer the adjoining districts. He seized the Yexin, a small dis¬ 
trict on the Seine, from the king of France, and built in it the 
strong fortress of Gisors, which was afterwards a place of much 
importance. The Normans about this time recon- a ^ o 
quered Anglesey a from the Welsh, but in 1098 it was * P ’ ‘ 
attacked by Magnus, king of Norway, when Hugh, Earl of 
Shrewsbury, the brother of Belesme, was killed in opposing him. 
Robert bought the earldom for £3,000, and coming again to Eng¬ 
land, built himself a strong castle on the Severn, at Bridgnorth, 
and from it carried on plundering expeditions against all his 
neighbors, whether Normans, Saxons, or Welsh, robbing the 
churches, murdering the people, and building forts on other men’s 
lands, in each of which he placed bands of freebooters. No re¬ 
dress could be obtained for his depredations, as he was a favor¬ 
ite with the king, and was besides one of the best castle-builders 
and fiercest soldiers of his time. 

§ 22. The people of Maine, when they threw off the yoke of 
the Normans, b sent into Italy and offered the sover- 

b § 14, p. 110. 

eignty to Hugh of Tuscany, the grandson of their 
last count. He accepted the offer, but finding that he must main¬ 
tain possession by the sword, he soon sold it to his cousin Elias, a 
brave knight, who successfully resisted all the force that Robert 
(or rather his general, de Belesme) could bring against him. But 
when the government came into the hands of William, the count 
repaired to him at Rouen, and very humbly asked for peace, as he 
wished to go on the crusade. “ Go where you like,” replied the 
king, “ so long as you surrender my inheritance.”—“ It is my in¬ 
heritance,” said Elias, “ and if you dispute it, I will plead my 
cause before the bishops and lords of the land.”—“ My pleadings 
shall be spears and arrows,” cried the king; “ return to your city, 


114 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book IY. 

Affairs in Normandy. 

summon your friends, and repair your broken-down walls, for I 
will never leave you in quiet possession.” 

§ 23. Elias retired to liis states, and William, occupied with 
other affairs, left him for a while undisturbed; but at last the count 
fell into an ambuscade laid for him by de Belesme, and was carried 
off a prisoner to Rouen. Soon afterward Mans, his capital, was 
obliged to surrender, one condition being that he should be set at 
liberty. As Elias had now lost his dominions, and had nothing 
left but five castles of his patrimonial inheritance, he wished to 
enter William’s service as a simple knight. The king, who ad¬ 
mired his courage, would have granted the request, but some of his 
courtiers dissuaded him, and it was refused, when Elias exclaimed, 
“ Bad luck has put me in your power, Sir King ; but if I were free 
I know what I would do ! ”—“ Do! you do! ” cried William in a 
rage ; “do what you can! begone, fly, and do your worst! ” and 
then gave him a safe-conduct through his states. 

§ 24. Elias passed some months in strengthening his castles and 
collecting his friends, while William returned to England. He 
was engaged in his favorite pastime of hunting in the 

a § 27, p. l 2. Forest,* when a messenger met him, and in¬ 

formed him that Elias had surprised the city of Mans, and was 
then in possession of it, though the Norman garrison in the castle 
still held out. The king at once turned his horse about, cry¬ 
ing out, “ Let us support our friends! ” and rode down to the 
coast. There he threw himself into the first vessel that he saw, 
which was little better than a fishing-boat, and put to sea, although 
a storm was raging, answering his courtiers, who wished to wait 
for better accommodation and fair weather, that he had never 
heard of a king who was drowned. His boldness was successful. 
As soon as Elias heard that William had landed in Normandy, he 
fled from Mans, which had in the mean time been burnt by the gar¬ 
rison of the castle, and shut himself up in one of his forts. Thither 
the king followed him, but the place being strong, he soon aban¬ 
doned the siege, and, imitating his father’s policy, revenged him¬ 
self by ravaging the open country with fire and sword; the fruit- 
trees were cut down, the vines were rooted up, the houses were 
burnt, and the people were slaughtered. That w T as in the year 
1099. 

§ 25. This was the last visit that William paid to the continent, 
as his sudden death put an end to a project that he had formed of 


f 


Chapter II.] THE NORMAN RULE. 115 

William's Ambition frustrated. His death. Henry secures the Crown and Treasure. 

adding all the southern part of France to his dominions. William 
Count of Aquitaine, wishing to go to the crusade, entered into a 
bargain with the English king, and for a sum of money agreed to 
put his territories in William’s hands. So nearly was the matter 
concluded that William announced his intention of spending his 
Christmas at Poitiers, and was near the sea-coast to superintend the 
fitting out of a fleet and army to take possession. As usual, all his 
spare time was devoted to hunting; but strange rumors of some 
evil to happen to him were spread far and wide, and at length 
reached his ears. He laughingly said they were the fancies of 
monks who dreamed for money, and ordered 100 pence as a re¬ 
ward to one of them; but they evidently made an impression on 
him, and on the day of his death [August 2, 1100] he did not go 
out to hunt until he had dined and drunk freely. 

§ 26. William’s brother Henry, one Walter Tyrrel, a favorite at¬ 
tendant, William de Breteuil, and many others accompanied the 
king, but the party was soon scattered in pursuit of the game. Sud¬ 
denly a cry was raised that the king was killed, and his body was 
seen on the ground pierced by an arrow. The deed was said to have 
been done by accident by Walter Tyrrel, but he always denied it, and 
it is not improbable that William was assassinated by some one 
else, at the instigation of his ambitious brother. Prince Henry rode 
up, and after a glance at the body galloped off to Winchester, 
where he demanded the keys of the royal treasure. William de 
Breteuil, who had followed him, claimed the crown on behalf of 

Robert a (William having never married left no legiti- 

^ ° a § 3 p 106 

mate child) ; but Henry, drawing his sword, declared ’ 

that no foreign-bom prince should possess the crown of England, 

for that he, who was of English birth, was the true heir. This 

declaration was well pleasing to the English. Breteuil’s protest 

was unnoticed, and, as soon as the treasure had been surrendered, 

Henry hastened to London to secure the crown, without troubling 

himself even to give orders for his brother’s burial. 

§ 27. The body of William had been picked up by some of his 
servants, and being wrapped in a coarse cloth, it was brought on a 
charcoal-burner’s cart to Winchester, “ like a wild boar pierced by 
the hunters.” It was buried on the day after his death, in the cathe¬ 
dral ; but though many of his nobles attended, we are told by a 
writer of the time there were few mourners. All classes were 
thankful because the country had been relieved of a cruel tyrant. 


116 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [BookIV: 

Character of William Rufus. His Successor’s Coronation and Marriage. 

§ 28. Thus perished, in the fortieth year of his age, the second 
Norman king. He is described as having been short and stout, 
with yellow hair and red face. He was very strong and active, and 
though easily excited to terrible fits of passion, he was frank and 
familiar with his chosen associates, profuse in his gifts, and occa¬ 
sionally showed both forbearance and generosity, particularly to a 
resolute opponent like the Count of Maine. a He, how- 
a § 22 , p 113. ever , led a mogt profligate life, was an open scoffer 

and contemner of religion, and suffered justice (or rather injustice) 
to be bought and sold. Thus he has gained a worse character than 
either his father or his brother Henry, who, though quite as bad 
men, were more orderly in their conduct, and allowed no ether 
tyranny than their own. 


CHAPTER III. 

reign of Henry the First, [a. d. 1100 to 1185.] 

§ 1. Henry was the only son of William the Conqueror who 
was born in England, and, as we have seen, b he had 
b § 26, p * 10o ‘ the address to turn this accidental circumstance to his 
advantage. He, however, differed in many other and more important 
respects from his brothers. They were mere illiterate hunters and 
soldiers, without anything pleasing in their appearance or concilia¬ 
tory in their manners, whilst he was tall and handsome, with dark, 
hair and bright blue eyes. He was studiously courteous to all, and 
though really even more avaricious, cruel, and treacherous than 
they, he early gained wisdom by adversity, and acted so prudently 
whilst in an inferior condition that he was a general favorite, while 
Robert and William were detested. He had, too, under the care 
of his tutor, Archbishop Lanfranc, 0 acquired a taste 
c § 19 , p. 100. _£ or i earn i n g 5 s0 that he was known as Beau Clerc, or 
the Fine Scholar, and his natural talents enabled him to fulfil the 
saying of his father, who, when giving him money instead of land, 
declared that he would one day excel his brothers botli in wealth 
and dominion. Henry was crowned in Westminster Abbey, on 
Sunday, the 5th of August, in the year 1100, by Maurice the bishop 



Chapter III.] 


THE NORMAN RULE. 

King Henry’s antecedent History. 


117 


of London, when he was thirty-two years of age. The same year he 

married Maud, a Scottish princess, and descendant of 

the great Alfred. ft ^ p ’ 46 ' 

§ 2. Before considering the history of Henry’s reign, let us look 
at antecedent events connected with his public career. 

§ 3. Henry well knew the value of the gift of his father, and 
when the careless spendthrift, Robert, desired to borrow of him, 
refused to part with a single coin. Robert then offered to sell him 
part of his inheritance, on which Henry listened to him at once, 
and for £3,000 purchased one-third of Normandy. This was an 
important district, called the Cotentin, b which in- 

>> § t>, p. 107. 

eluded many cities, and strong cfastles, and sea-ports, 
as Avanches, Barfleur, Cherbourg, and Mont St. Michel. Henry at 
once established an orderly government, and showed so much activ¬ 
ity in protecting his people from the ravages of de Belesme and 
other freebooters, that he became very popular all over the duchy, 
and the weak and jealous Robert feared to be deposed by him. 
Quarrels and reconciliations followed; but at last Robert and Wil¬ 
liam joined their forces against Henry, stripped him of all his 
possessions, and in the year 1091 drove him into exile. 

§ 4. The young prince found a refuge in the Vexin, a province 
adjoining Normandy, where he lived for some time w T ith the hum¬ 
ble suite of only one knight, one priest, and three squires, “ and 
though a king’s son,” says a writer who knew him, “ had to endure 
poverty, that when he became king himself he might have com¬ 
passion for the poor and lowly.” He had, however, still friends, 
for he was known to be brave and active, and at last the people 
of Domfront, a strong town in Normandy, invited him to rescue 
them from the tyranny of de Belesme. 0 He accepted 0 g 21 p 113 
their offer, drove the freebooters from the castle, and 
fixing his own residence there, commenced an active war for the 
recovery of the Cotentin. 

§ 5. William, who cared not what instruments he employed to 
work his own ends, now saw that Henry might be useful to him in 
his designs against Normandy; he therefore supplied him with 
men and money, and employed him [a.d. 1095] as his general. 
Robert was soon obliged to surrender his duchy, and the war be¬ 
ing thus ended, William and Henry, now as firm friends as two bad 
men could be, returned to England together. Henry continued to 
reside in his brother’s court, and this threw in his way the oppor- 


118 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book IV. 

Henry’s Promises to the Saxons. Affairs in Normandy. The Normans in England. 

tunity, which he did not neglect, of securing the throne of England 
the instant that it became vacant, while Robert,* 1 who 
a § 17 , p. ill. had refuged the crown of Jerusalem in favor of 
b § 17 , p. ill. Godfrey of Bouillon, b was lingering among the Nor¬ 
man settlers in Italy, on his way back from the crusade. 

§ 6. Henry, hastening to London, as we have seen, was crowned 
on the third day after his brother’s death. He well knew that his 
hope of success in his usurpation must depend on his securing the 
support of the Saxons, and he was lavish in his promises to them 
of good government. He granted a charter re-establishing the 
laws of Edward the Confessor, 0 directed the hateful 
c § 18, p ‘ <8 ' curfew to be abolished, promised to soften the rigor 
d § 5, p. 106. ^ f ores t laws, and knowing that Le Mambard d 
was regarded as the chief instrument of the extortions of the late 
reign, he ordered him to be seized and confined in fetters in the 
Tower of London. The bishop, however, did not long remain a 
prisoner. As he was rich, he made dainty feasts for his keepers, 
and whilst they were carousing, he lowered himself from the win¬ 
dow by means of a rope that his friends had sent him in a cask of 
wine, and escaped. 

§ 7. Very soon after Henry’s accession Robert returned to Nor¬ 
mandy, bringing with him a wife, Sibylla of Conversana, from 
Italy, and money (her marriage portion) to redeem his duchy; but 
he found Henry’s soldiers in his castles, fully prepared to hold them 
against him. Instead 'of attempting to recover them, he wasted 
his wife’s fortune on base favorites, abandoned himself to indo¬ 
lence, and, as he had done before, suffered his barons to make 
war on each other, and rob and murder with impunity. The 

disinherited Count of Maine ® took advantage of the 
« § 23, p. 114. , . TT . . 

confusion to recover his territories. He gave his 

daughter in marriage to Fulk, Count of Anjou, and he took a 

conspicuous part in the subsequent war between 
f § 9, P . 119. _ , 1 . _ f 

Robert and Henry. f 

§ 8. The Normans in England soon showed that they were dis¬ 
satisfied with Henry’s government, which was strict and orderly, 
and they began confederating together to place Robert on the 
throne, feeling secure of doing as they pleased under his indolent 
rule. Henry, to defeat their schemes,* took the de- 
b § 14, p. n . c ^ ded g £ e p j 0 i n i n g himself openly with the Saxons. 
He therefore drew from a convent, and, as we have noticed, 


Chapter III.] THE NORMAN RULE. 119 

Effect of Henry’s Marriage. England again Invaded. The Invaders withdraw. 

married a princess of Saxon descent, the daughter of Malcolm of 
St -otland, and niece of Edgar Atheling. Her name was Edith, but 
as Saxon appellations w T ere discountenanced, she was commonly 
called Matilda or Maud. She had been educated by her aunt, the 
Abbess Christina, and was a woman of exemplary piety and charity. 
This marriage, while it delighted the Saxons, gave mortal offence 
to the proud Norman lords, who insultingly styled the king and 
queen Godric and Godiva. Henry, however, cared nothing for 
their taunts, though, as they afterwards found, he did not forget 
them. To meet the invasion with which he was threatened, he 
raised an army of Saxons, which he trained in warlike exercises 
himself, for his Normans absolutely refused to teach them, saying 
that it was not fit that the arms of nobles and knights should be 
placed in such hands. 

§ 9. Whilst the king was thus employed, Le Flanibard , on his 
escape from the Tower, had repaired to Normandy, and become Ro¬ 
bert’s chief counsellor. By his activity troops were got ready and a 
fleet prepared, to which several of Henry’s ships deserted. In July, 
1101, Robert landed at Portsmouth, and was soon joined by the 
great body of the Normans. Henry faced them with, his Saxons, 
but he was too prudent to expose his untried troops; he took the 
wiser course, and would not allow Robert to bring him to a battle. 
Robert then proposed to decide the quarrel by a single combat, but 
Henry declined this, as unsuitable to the dignity of a king; and 
at last a peace was concluded, by which Robert resigned his claim 
to the crown for a pension of 3,000 marks, and Henry, on his part, 
promised to pardon his brother’s adherents. 

§ 10. This was a promise that Henry had no intention of keep¬ 
ing. One of his courtiers had advised him to promise anything 
that might have the effect of getting Robert out of England, 
and when that was accomplished to keep as much or as little 
as he pleased. On this dishonest counsel he acted. Though 
Le Flanibard was no longer justiciary, other clerks or lawyers 
were found who easily discovered that every powerful Norman 
had broken many of the laws. One by one they were summoned 
before the king’s court, and those who were the most favorably 
treated were heavily fined, while many were stripped of all their 
lands and banished. The chief among these was a g 6 p 107 
the famous Robert de Belesme. a He had taken up 
arms for Robert, and therefore by the treaty was entitled to 


120 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book IV. 

Belesme in England and Normandy. His adherents suffer. The King in Normandy. 

pardon, but means were nevertheless found to ruin him. He had 
now, as Earl of Shrewsbury, dwelt in England for some years, 
acting almost like a sovereign prince, and Henry saw that he 
could never be safe with such a subject. 

§ 11. By the king’s order, all his actions after Roberts depar¬ 
ture were narrowly watched, and written evidence was soon col¬ 
lected of forty-five different offences against the laws. Robert 
was then summoned before the justiciaries, and ordered to give a 
distinct answer to each charge. Instead of attempting this, he 
fled from the court, strengthened his castles of Arundel, and 
Blythe, and Bridgnorth, and Shrewsbury, hired Welsh and other 
mercenaries, and stood on his defence. But he found that he had 
not a slothful prince like Robert to deal with. Arundel and 
Blythe were soon reduced, and Henry marched in person against 
Bridgnorth. This was taken after an obstinate siege, and Belesme 
was at last obliged to submit. He was banished, after being 
stripped of all his lands, part of which were given to Jorwortli, 
a Welsh prince who had fought against him. 

§ 12. But de Belesme’s remarkable career was by no means, 
over. He went to Normandy, and induced Robert to put him in 
possession of his estates there, whereon were thirty-four castles, 
and when once established in them he made war on his neighbors 
as before. Indeed he appeared to contemplate conquering the 
duchy, and Robert was obliged to pacify him by making him his 
general. 

§ 13. Among other nobles who suffered as partisans of Robert 
was William Warren, Earl of Surrey, who, going over to Nor¬ 
mandy, made such loud complaints of his losses that Robert 
came to England to remonstrate with his brother on this breach 
of their agreement. Henry, however, charged him with violating 
the treaty by receiving de Belesme, and kept him in a kind of cus¬ 
tody until he consented to give up his pension, when he was 
allowed to return to Normandy, apparently only that he might 
fall into utter contempt. 

§ 14. At length Henry passed over into Normandy, and, as had 
been before arranged, received from Serio, the bishop of Seez, 
a formal complaint of Robert’s misgovemment, and a request that 
he would redress the ills of the country. The interview took 
place at Carentan, in the church, which was found half filled with 
household goods and implements of husbandly. The bishop 


THE NORMAN RULE. 


121 


Chapter III.] 

An outspoken Bishop. War in Normandy. Henry Victorious. 

pointed to this “vile lumber” stored there as a proof of the 
insecurity of the people, and said: “Your brother does not really 
govern tliis country; he abandons it to his favorites, and whilst 
he wastes its wealth in idle follies, he is often without bread. He 
passes the greatest part of his time in bed, and cannot go to church 
for want of clothes, as his idle associates often carry them off while 
he is asleep, and then make an open boast that they have robbed 
their duke. In the relief of your own land, Sir King, you may be 
angry and sin not.” Then turning to another matter, the bishop 
inveighed against the fashion of wearing long hair, which the 
clergy regarded as a sin. Henry professed his grief, when Serlo, 
producing a pair of scissors, cropped the king’s locks, and those 
of his courtiers. 

§ 15. Many of the Norman nobles were present at this scene, 
and when it was over they agreed to assist to drive out 
Robert; but as he had still numerous supporters, particularly 
Le Flambard (who held the strong city of Lisieux), and the 
formidable Robert de Belesme, Henry judged it necessary to 
call the Count of Maine to his assistance. Bayeux was taken 
and burnt, and Caen was surrendered by four of the inhabi- * 
tants, who received the town of Darlington, in England, as a 
reward; but Henry was repulsed at Falaise, and then returned 
to his own dominions. 

§ 16. In the following year he resumed his operations. The 
Count of Maine, and also the Earl of Surrey, for whom Robert 
had lost his pension, were with him, and he laid siege to Tinche- 
brai, a town belonging to his cousin William, Earl of Mortein and 
Cornwall, who had forfeited his lands in Robert’s cause. The 
earl made a vigorous defence. Robert and Edgar Atheling, and 
de Belesme came to his aid, and at last, on the 28th of September, 
1106, a decisive battle was fought near the town. Robert and 
Edgar, who had with them many knights from the crusade, fought 
desperately, but were at last overpowered and made prisoners; 
the same fate befell the Earl of Mortein and many other nobles, but 
de Belesme contrived to escape. Falaise was soon after surren¬ 
dered, in which was William, Robert’s son, a child of five years old. 
Le Flambard made his peace by betraying Lisieux; and Henry, 
after a six years’ struggle, then came into full possession of Nor¬ 
mandy. Belesme endeavored to detach the Count of Maine from 
his alliance, and having still numerous castles in his hands, was 
6 


122 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 


Fate of Belesme and his Associates. 


[Book IV. 

New Nobility created. 


eager to renew the war, hoping to gain the duchy for himself, bpt 
Elias a would not listen to him. On laying down his 
§ 22, p. 113. armg B e i esme was pardoned, and had a few of his 
estates granted to him, but the strong castles that he had built 
were destroyed. He soon retired into France, but afterwards 
falling into Henry’s hands, he ended his life in prison. 

§ 17. Such also was the fate of most of the prisoners of Tinche- 
brai. Robert was at first placed in easy custody, but attempting 
to escape, he was imprisoned for the long remainder of* his life 
(twenty-eight years), and many writers say that he was even 
blinded by his unnatural brother. The Earl of Mortein, after a 
long confinement, was obliged to become a monk at Bermond¬ 
sey; and imprisonment for life, often accompanied by blind¬ 
ing or maiming, was the fate of almost every considerable person 
who had espoused the cause of Robert. Henry, now that all 
serious opposition was crushed, indulged the savage cruelty of 
his nature, and only spared men like Le Flambard, who could 
purchase pardon by some act of treachery. 

§ 18. The void made among the Norman nobles by so many 
•confiscations was soon filled up by lands and titles being granted 
to a number of new men, many of them servants of the court. 
Ralph the butler, Geoffrey the chamberlain, Robert and Walter 
the stewards, were all made peers, as were Ralph Basset and 
Richard Lucy, the king’s judges, and Ralph of Bayeux, Hamon 
of Wolverton, and Thomas St. John, who were men of the sword. 
Henry, however, by no means granted away all that fell into his 
hands, and he was especially careful that his new nobility should 
not be powerful enough to be beyond his control; whilst those 
who remained of the old found themselves entirely at his mercy. 
For the slightest offence their estates were seized and their castles 
pulled down, and the people thus enjoyed more protection from 
>> § 12 p 81 v ^°^ ence ^he “ Castle men ” than had been the 
case ever since the battle of Hastings. b 
§ 19. The king, however, was himself quite as tyrannical as his 
predecessors. He enlarged the forests, reserving all the game for 
himself, and only very sparingly granted permission to a few of 
his great men to hunt on their own lands, while he ordered all the 
dogs in the neighborhood of the woods to be maimed, so as to 
prevent their following the chase. Breaches of the forest laws 
were, of course, of daily occurrence, for which the offenders were 


» § 11, p. 120. 


Chapter IIL] THE NORMAN RULE. 123 

Chief Events of Henry’s Reign. Operations of a Welsh Prince. 

heavily fined; and as he made a market of honors and prefer¬ 
ments, and laid enormous taxes on the people, he grew more 
wealthy and more odious every day. 

§ 20. The conquest of Normandy, and the crushing of the power 
of his nobility, were the chief events of Henry’s reign, though he 
labored to extend his dominion over Wales also. He made several 
inroads into the country, and received the submission Of many of 
the chiefs, but others strove fiercely against him. Little progress 
was made, though many strong castles were built upon the bor¬ 
ders, the owners of which, under the name of Lords Marchers, 
exercised unbearable oppression. The hatred of the Welsh to the 
Normans thus grew stronger daily, so that Jorworth, who had 
helped the king against de Belesme, a and received 
part of his lands, was in consequence murdered by 
his own son and nephew. But they soon found a champion to 
afford them help. This was Griffin, the son of Rhys ap Tudor, 
the Prince of South Wales, who had been killed by Jestyn and 
his auxiliaries. 

§ 21. The young prince, who had been long an exile in Ireland, 
returned to Wales in 1111, captured Carmarthen, defeated those 
who by Norman help had seized parts of his father’s dominions, 
and re-established the principality, which he held until his death, 
more than twenty years after. He is praised by his countrymen 
as generous and brave, and is said to have captured almost all the 
posts on the coast of Pembrokeshire which were held by the 
Flemish settlers b who had been driven into England 
by the misfortunes of their country. These men were ^ 9 ’ P ‘ 108 ‘ 
as cruel as the Normans, but they had not their courage, and hence 
Griffin often ventured to attack them, though twenty to one, tell¬ 
ing his men that, though thus numerous, they were only cow¬ 
ardly Flemings, and would not fight. 

§ 22. Whilst these events were passing, Henry spent much of his 
time in Normandy, the people of which, though they had been 
dissatisfied with Robert, were by no means reconciled to his gov¬ 
ernment. Fulk, the Count of Anjou, had succeeded 
to the earldom of Maine, and his intrigues with the 
Normans seriously alarmed Henry. He therefore made the Nor¬ 
man nobles swear to receive William, his only legitimate son, as 
their duke; and he remained three years in Normandy, until he 
had, as he supposed, secured his succession, by marrying that son 


c § 7, p. 118. 


124 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 


[Book IV. 

Henry’s troubles about a Successor. His Daughter Heir Apparent. 

to Matilda* the daughter of the Count of Anjou. But his hopes 
were frustrated by his son being shipwrecked, with his half-sister, 
in the following year. So deeply did he feel this misfortune that 
it is said he was never seen to smile afterwards. This fatal event 
occurred on the 25th of November, 1120, on the coast of Nor¬ 
mandy, and many young nobles perished with the prince. 

§ 23. But Henry had fresh troubles, which arose from his own 
avarice and bad faith. He detained the property of the widow of 
his son, and this so offended her father that he gave her younger 
sister in marriage to William, the son of Robert, and powerfully 
supported him in his attempts to regain the duchy of Normandy. 
The war between the uncle and nephew lasted for five years, until 
the young prince was killed [a.d. 1128] in battle. The King of 
France had been his supporter, and thus a war was carried on for 
years between Fiance and England, but with no important result. 

§ 24. Henry had, several years before, married his daughter, 
Maud or Matilda, to Henry the Fifth, Emperor of Germany; but 
she became a widow in 1125, and returned to England. The 
king compelled his nobles to swear to receive her as their future 
queen. This was done at a general assembly of the notables of the 
kingdom, in Windsor Castle, on Christmas-day, 1126. He then 
induced the Count of Anjou to forsake the cause of William of 
Normandy by giving Maud as a wife to his son Geoffrey, who 
was much younger than Maud. The imperial widow laughed 
outright when the marriage was proposed. “ He is so like a girl,” 
said the masculine woman. She interposed many obstacles to the 
completion of the nuptial ceremonies; but they were finally so¬ 
lemnized at Rouen on the 26th of August, 1127. 1 From this 
marriage sprang Henry Plantagenet, afterwards King of England, 
and the first of the royal house of that name. 

§ 25. The union was a very unhappy one. Geoffrey and Maud 
quarrelled and separated repeatedly, for the ex-empress was a 
virago. On the king taking part with his daughter, the irritated 
count seized on several of Henry’s castles in Normandy, and made 
war on him. This obliged Henry to pass over again and again 
into Normandy, and at last he died there, after nearly two years 

1 On that occasion Geoffrey was created an English knight. In honor of the double 
dignity of husband and knight, he took a bath and put on a clean linen shirt. Henry, 
in commemoration of the cleanliness of his son-in-law (Europeans had been unwashed 
for centuries), then called him Knight of the Bath, and created the renowned Order of 
the Bath, the oldest order in England, and next in honor to that of the Blue Garter. 


125 


Chapter IV.] THE NORMAN RULE. 

Death of Henry. His Character. Usurper Enthroned. 

absence from England, on the night of Sunday, the 1st of Decem¬ 
ber, 1135. 

§ 26. Henry, as has been said, married a Saxon princess, who is 
known as the good Queen Maud. After a time she withdrew from 
the court, and retired to the monastery of Westminster, where she 
passed her time in works of charity and devotion until her death, 
in 1118. Soon after Henry married a second wife, Adelais or 
Alice of Louvain, who became a firm friend to his daughter Maud. 

§ 27. The character of Henry is in many respects very odious. 
He was most profligate in his life, tyrannical, rapacious, and bar¬ 
barously cruel, so that he even suffered the eyes of his own grand¬ 
children to be destroyed 1 to gratify the hatred of one of his nobles. 
He quarrelled with Archbishop Anselm a and drove a ^ 1;l p 109 
him into exile, as William Rufus had done before, 
and, as has been said, he carried the oppression of the forest laws 
to an almost unbearable extreme. Yet his death was a subject of 
regret, for, with all his tyranny, he kept the Norman chiefs within 
bounds, and the Saxon writer tells us that when the king’s strong 
hand was removed, “ there was tribulation in the land, for every 
man that could then robbed another.” 


CHAPTER IV. 

reign of Stephen. [a.d. 1135 to 1154.] 

§ 1. As Henry had supplanted his brother Robert, so his own 
daughter met with similar treatment from her cousin, Stephen of 
Blois, who was the first to take the required oath to receive her as 
Queen of England, b and was the first to violate it. b ^ 24 p 124 
This prince, who was a son of Adela, one of the 
daughters of William I., and about forty years of age, had been 
brought up in the court of his uncle. As soon as he heard of 
Henry’s death he hastened over to England, and being assisted by 
his brother Henry, who was Bishop of Winchester, he prevailed on 
the Archbishop of Canterbury to crown him, on the pretence that 
the king had on his death-bed disinherited his daughter on 

i This cruelty, borrowed from the Italians, was performed by holding the face of the 
Victim over a red-hot basin until the eyes were seared and the sight destroyed. 



126 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 


[Book IV. 

King Stephen. His troubles. 

account of her undutiful conduct. Stephen had married, the 
year before, Maud or Matilda, daughter and heir of Eustace, 
Count of Boulogne, who owned immense estates in England. 

§ 2. To gain the good-will of the people the new king granted 
a charter, by which he promised to respect the privileges of the 
church, to give up the forests that had been newly made, and to 
observe all good and ancient laws and just customs. Many of the 
nobles, however, refused to do homage to him; the bishops would 
promise to obey him only so long as he maintained the liberty of 
the church; and David, King of Scotland, took up arms to 
support Maud, who was his niece. Stephen was at first successful. 
David, who had invaded England, agreed to a truce, and Exeter, 
which Baldwin de Rivers had fortified for Maud, was taken. But 
a more formidable attack was soon made on the usurper. Robert, 
Earl of Gloucester, a natural son of the late king, a man of great 
ability and courage, sent a formal defiance to him, and prepared 
to invade England. Stephen seized on the earl’s lands, but his 
castle of Bristol was held against him, and a war that lasted 
eight years commenced. 

§ 3. The King of Scotland now again entered England, but after 
advancing as far as Northallerton, in Yorkshire, he was there de¬ 
feated, and he and his son narrowly escaped with their lives. The 
English carried many banners, which were mounted on a wagon, 
and the fight is from this known as the Battle of the Standard. It 
was fought on the 22d of August, 1138. 

§ 4. Though the Scots had been defeated, Stephen’s affairs seem¬ 
ed desperate. Many of the nobles were in arms against him, and 
those who professed to be his friends extorted lands and honors 
as the price of their support, and built castles at their pleasure. 
The king hired soldiers from Flanders, who came under a renowned 
leader, named William of l r pres, and then he attempted to 
strengthen himself by seizing several castles that were in the hands 
of Roger, Bishop of Salisbury, and his nephews the Bishops of Ely 
and Lincoln, who were known partisans of Maud. This step, 
however, had very different consequences. His brother Henry, 
Bishop of Winchester, strongly condemned his proceedings, 
and while he was thus embarrassed, Maud and her half-brother 
and general, the Earl of Gloucester, landed at Portsmouth in Sep¬ 
tember, 1139. The earl went to the west of England to raise 
forces, leaving his sister in Arundel Castle under the care of her 


THE NORMAN RULE. 


127 


Chapter IV.] 

Maud fights for the Crown. Her Troubles and Perils. 

step-mother, Adolais of Louvain. a Stephen soon besieged her 

there, but at length allowed her to retire to Glouces- „ „ 

® 8 § 26, p. 125. 

ter, where she dwelt in royal state, whilst the earl took 

the field. Upwards of a year passed in fierce war, in spite of the 
efforts of the bishops to bring about some agreement. At last 
Stephen, having placed the castle of Lincoln in the care of Ralph, 
Earl of Chester, was informed that he meant to give it up to the 
Earl of Gloucester, whose son-in-law he was. To prevent this he 
marched against him and besieged him, but was himself attacked 
[Feb. 2, 1141] by the Earl of Gloucester with ten thousand men, 
defeated, and carried off a prisoner to Bristol, where he was con¬ 
fined in chains by order of his cousin. 

§ 5. Maud now moved forward toward London, but she took 
Winchester in her way, where the bishop, altogether abandoning 
the cause of his brother, received her, and by his influence she was 
formally acknowledged as Lady, or Queen, of the English. Many 
of Stephen’s friends were excommunicated, and his cause seemed 
so hopeless that his wife petitioned for his release from prison on 
condition of his resigning the crown and retiring into a convent. 
Maud, who was of a haughty, imperious nature, refused to listen 
to her, and the war broke out afresh. But Maud caused her own 
ruin, for when she soon after held her court in London, she so of¬ 
fended the citizens by her harsh conduct that they rose tumultu¬ 
ously against her and drove her away. 

§ 6. Maud now retired to Oxford, but soon after quarrelled with 
the Bishop of Winchester, who at once resolved to attempt to restore 
his brother to liberty. He retired to his castle at Winchester, where 
Maud followed him and besieged him. She was herself besieged 
in the palace there, and the city was burnt in the course of the 
straggle. At last a truce was agreed on for the purpose of observing 
Holy Cross day [Sept. 14], when Maud succeeded in escaping to 
Gloucester, but her brother was made prisoner in protecting her 
flight. 

§ 7. After a short time the king and the earl were both set at 
liberty by being exchanged, and the w T ar was then carried on more 
furiously than ever. Maud resided for a while in the castle of 
Oxford, where she was besieged by Stephen; but she made her 
escape on foot over the frozen river, reached Wallingford, and 
thence she again retired to Gloucester [a.d. 1143], when England 
became in reality divided into three states, Maud being acknow- 




128 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book IV. 

Sufferings of the People. Maud flees. Her Son in England. 

ledged in the west, Stephen in the east, and the King of Scotland 
in the north. 

§ 8. The people, as might be expected, now suffered the 
most terrible calamities. The nobles of all parties sent forth 
bands of plunderers from their castles, who robbed and murdered 
at their will. A chronicler who lived at the time says : “Never yet 
was there such misery in the land; never did heathen men worse 
than they. They said openly that Christ slept, and all his saints; 
and though the bishops excommunicated them, they heeded it not ; 
they spared neither church nor churchyard, but took all the goods 
that had been placed for safety there, and then burnt the church 
itself.” At last, in the eighth year of the war, the Earl of Glou¬ 
cester died, and Maud, knowing that she could accomplish nothing 
without him, very soon after abandoned the struggle and retired 
to Normandy. That was in the year 1145. She was in great peril 
on her voyage, and made a vow to found a church if she got 
safely to land. The abbey that she built in consequence existed 
until recent times, at Cherbourg. 

§ 9. Stephen was thus at last left in undisturbed possession of 
the kingdom, but this quiet did not last long. His brother, the 
Bishop of Winchester, and the Pope’s legate, acted unjustly by 
Theobald, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and caused him to be 
driven into exile. Theobald appealed to the Pope, by the means 
of one of his chaplains named Thomas a Becket, and got the extra¬ 
ordinary powers of the Bishop of Winchester taken from him. 
Stephen, however, refused to let the archbishop return, and the 
discontent that this occasioned induced Maud to send her young 
son Henry, then sixteen years of age, into Scotland, where he was 
knighted by the king. He then invaded the north of England, 
but the people were little inclined to see the war renewed, and late 
in 1149 he was obliged to retire. 

§ 10. The king at last became reconciled to the archbishop, 
whom he recalled, and then endeavored to induce h im to crown 
his son Eustace, a youth of bad character. Becket was again sent 
to the Pope, and he soon returned with the positive command that 
it should not be done. This induced young Henry to come again 
into England, where he was joined by many friends. The war 
commenced afresh; but Stephen was an able soldier, and Henry 
made small progress against him, when Eustace suddenly died, 
and then the nobles on both sides agreed to a peace. Stephen was 


i § 1, p. 125. 


Chapter IV.] THE NORMAN RULE. 129 

Death of Stephen. The Welsh strike for Independence. 

allowed to retain the crown as long as he lived ; but Henry, at a 
great council of the notables of the kingdom, held at Winchester on 
the 7th November, 1153, was adopted by him as his son, and oaths 
were taken to him as his successor. In less than a year after this 
Stephen died at Dover, and Henry, being at once summoned from 
Normandy, became the first of the famous Plantagenet kings. 

§ 11. Whilst England w r as distracted by civil war, the Welsh 
were able to free themselves in many places from the yoke of the 
Normans. Their chief leader was Owen Gwynneth, who captured 
the strong fortresses of Aberteivi, Carmarthen, Mold, and Tenby, 
and gave a signal defeat to the Earl of Chester, at Consilt, in the 
year 1149. 

§ 12. King Stephen was a man of handsome presence, of cheer¬ 
ful mind and courteous manners, trained in war from his youth, 
an able general, and lavish of gifts to his supporters. Though he 
was ungrateful to his uncle, and broke his oath to his 
cousin, a and afforded but little protection to his peo¬ 
ple against the tyranny of the nobles and his foreign soldiers, he 
yet seems to have been a better man than any of the preceding 
Norman kings. He never showed wanton cruelty; and he readily 
forgave those who deserted him. He acted very .leniently to any 
of his opponents when they fell into his power—a virtue which 
cannot be claimed by any of the Norman line. 

§ 13. Each of the Norman kings whose history we have just related 
had some personal appellation, as William the Bastard, or Henry 
the Fine Scholar, which served instead of a surname. But Geoffrey, 
the husband of Maud b and father of Henry, the b g 24 p 104 
founder of a new line of kings, had the honor 
of transmitting his personal appellation of “ Plantagenet ” to his 
descendants. The word is a corruption of planta genista, or the 
“broom plant,” a sprig of which Geoffrey is said to have usu¬ 
ally worn in his cap. The reason for the habit was differently 
given by writers of his time. Some regarded it as only indica¬ 
tive of his love for nature and field-sports. Others said it was a 
token of humility, he being but the son of an earl, whilst his wife 
was the daughter of a king and widow of an emperor. If such 
was really its meaning, Geoffrey did not act according c g ^ p 124 
to the token, for he quarrelled with his spouse, as we 
have seen, and made war upon her father, 0 without any regard 
to their superior rank. 

6 * 


BOOK V. 


THE PLANTAGENETS. 
[From a. d. 1154 to 1485.] 


CHAPTER I. 

reign of Henry the Second. [a.d. 1154 to 1189.] 

§ 1. Henry, suraamed Plantagenet, who was the eldest son of 
the Empress Maud and Geoffrey of Anjou, a was in 
§ 24, p. 124. k* g twenty-second year when he succeeded to the 
throne of England. He was crowned in Westminster Abbey on 
the 19th of December, 1154, about six weeks after the death of 
Stephen. He had inherited Normandy, Anjou, and Maine, and 
though so young he had, for the sake of her large possessions, 
married Eleanor of Guienne, a princess who had been divorced by 
her husband, the King of France. By this marriage he had ac¬ 
quired a large territory in the south of France, called Aquitaine , 
or Guienne, and now that he had obtained possession of England, 
he became the most powerful king of his time. But this extent 
of dominion did not satisfy him; he passed a great part of his 
reign in wars undertaken for the purpose of bringing other coun¬ 
tries under his rule, and he even deprived his brother Geoffrey of 
a few cities that their father had left to him, and drove him into 
exile. 

§ 2. When Henry came to England he was welcomed with 
much joy by the people, on account of his descent from their old 
Saxon kings; but he knew that he was not so favorably looked 
on by the Norman nobles, and, imitating the policy 

b § 8, p. 118. ° 1 J 

of his grandfather, Henry the First, b he at once took 
vigorous steps for lessening the dangerous power that they had 
acquired through the feebleness of Stephen. He pulled down 
more than a thousand castles that had been erected without the 
royal license, and were little better than strongholds of robbers. 



Chapter I.] THE PLANTAGENETS. 131 

The Normans restrained. Thomas & Becket. His Pride and Power. 

He disbanded most of the foreign troops that Stephen had em¬ 
ployed, and dismissed William of Ypres, his general; and as a 
check upon the Welsh, he sent a large number of Flemings 
to settle on the coast of Pembrokeshire (with their country¬ 
men already there a ), where their descendants still a§21 p m 
remain. 

§ 3. To gratify the people the new king granted afresh the 
charters of his predecessors, and as a proof of his desire to estab¬ 
lish an orderly government, he appointed justices to traverse the 
country and redress wrongs. In all these proceedings he had an 
able assistant in Thomas a Becket, a native of London, and the 
Archdeacon of Canterbury, who had already rendered him a great 
service by hindering the coronation of Eustace, and who soon 
after the accession of Henry was made chancellor. This was an 
office of much greater power than it is now, for its holder had, 
under the king, the control of the whole kingdom—was indeed 
the one minister who directed everything in the state, and he 
had very great influence over. the church also. Becket applied 
himself without scruple to forward all his master’s views, and 
thus he became so great a favorite that the king treated him 
almost as his equal, and he and Henry are described as playing 
together like two boys. 

§ 4. Becket was then a man about thirty-six years of age, tall 
and handsome, skilful alike in letters, in war and hunting, and 
in all courtly arts; witty and eloquent, magnificent in his style of 
living, and profuse in his gifts. He received the profits of many 
church preferments, but he performed the duties of none, for he 
was not yet, strictly speaking, a priest, and he passed his time 
instead as a judge, a soldier, or an ambassador. He was on one 
occasion sent to France to demand the daughter of the king in 
marriage for the son of Henry, when he journeyed with at least as 
much state as his master; and soon afterward he took the field, and 
served at the head of 700 knights in the south of France, where 
he unhorsed in single combat a renowned French knight. Such a 
kind of life was a strange preparation for the dignity of arch¬ 
bishop ; but this the king resolved to confer on him, expecting to 
find him ready to sacrifice the rights and possessions of the office 
out of gratitude for his promotion. 

§ 5. Accordingly, when Theobald the Archbishop of Canterbury 
died [a.d. 1162], Becket was, by the royal command, and in an 


132 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book Y. 

Becket’s Quarrel with the King and the Aristocracy. 

irregular manner, advanced to the see, apparently much against 
his own will, for he knew that he could not gratify the king’s ex¬ 
pectations and be a faithful governor of the church at the same 
time. He was of an ardent, impetuous temper, and now that he 
had become a priest he was resolved to discharge his duties with 
zeal. For this purpose he at once resigned the office of chan¬ 
cellor, at which the king was greatly displeased, and Becket was 
a favorite no longer. Many estates had been wrested from his 
see during the confusions of the last reign, and these he now 
endeavored to regain. The king encouraged the nobles who held 
them to resist. At last Becket excommunicated some of them, 
and though he afterwards relieved them from the penalty, he had 
made enemies who were determined to min him. 

§ 6. This was soon brought about under pretence of the king’s 
love for justice. He summoned Becket and the other bishops to 
an assembly at Westminster, where he complained of the proceed¬ 
ings of their courts, which he said allowed priests who were guilty 
of great crimes to go unpunished, and for remedy of this he required 
that the clergy should, both in person and property, be subject, not 
to the rule of the bishops, but to the ordinary laws. The right of 
judging offenders among the clergy had, however, been expressly 
allowed to belong solely to the church by Henry the First, on his 

reconciliation with Anselm, ft and as each succeeding 

“ § 2t, p. 125. SW orn to preserve all their privileges, the 

bishops would only consent to what was proposed, “saving the 
rights of their order.” As this was in reality not agreeing at all, 
they were next summoned to another assembly at Clarendon, a 
royal palace near Salisbury, where the king’s demands were again 
laid before them, and were untruly described as established cus¬ 
toms of the realm to which they were required to consent. Becket 
and the bishops denied this character to the Constitutions of Claren¬ 
don, as they were termed, and at first absolutely refused compli¬ 
ance ; but being threatened with imprisonment or death, they at 
length gave way, and promised to observe them. 

§ 7. Becket, however, soon bitterly repented of what he had 
done; he looked upon himself as the cause of the weakness of 
his brethren, and as a betrayer of the church, and he formally 
retracted his consent. In consequence, a third assembly was held 
at Northampton, to which he was summoned as a criminal, and 
where he was treated with extreme injustice. He had, some months 


Chapter L] THE PLANTAGENETS. 133 

Becket called to Account. He flees to France. Favored by the Pope. 

before, sent four knights to the king’s court to answer in his name 
to a complaint from John the Marshal, one of the royal officers, 
about a suit that was pending in his own court, instead of attend¬ 
ing himself, and this was now termed treason. He had, when he 
became archbishop, been formally released from all claims as to 
money that had passed through his hands, yet he was now called 
on to give an account for the whole term of his chancellorship; 
sums that the king had given to him, and others that he had 
received for, and laid out on, the royal castles of Eye and Berk- 
hamstead, of which he had been keeper, were demanded from him. 
For his non-appearance at the court a fine of £500 was imposed, 
though the law allowed no more than forty shillings; all his goods 
were afterwards declared forfeited; and he was threatened by some 
of the nobles with death, while others informed him that the king 
intended to tear out his eyes and tongue and imprison him for the 
rest of his life. 

§ 8. Becket formally appealed to the Pope from the judgment 
of the assembly, and retired to the monastery in the town in which 
he had lodged whilst the trial proceeded. He left at midnight, 
with only three companions, and travelling chiefly in darkness, 
and under the name of Brother Christian, he at length reached 
Eastry, in Kent, near the port of Sandwich, where he remained hid 
in the church for a week until an opportunity offered of crossing 
the sea to Flanders, which he did in an open boat in the summer 
of 1164. He found shelter for a while in the Abbey of St. Bertin, 
near St. Omer, where the Archbishops Anselm and Theodore had 
been sheltered before him, and was then formally taken under the 
protection of the King of France. He had several interviews with 
the king, and with the Pope, Alexander the Third, who was then 
dwelling in France, but who stood too much in need of the help 
of King Henry against a rival Pope 1 to venture to give him any 
real assistance, though he praised his constancy and courage. After 
resigning his bishopric into the hands of the Pope, and receiving 
it again from him, by which his scruples as to his former promo¬ 
tion were set aside, Becket, by order of the pontiff, retired to a 

i At that time, as at several other periods in the Middle Ages, there were rival 
Popes, who denounced each other as “ anti-Pope ” and “anti-Christ” Victor the Fourth, 
supported by Frederic Barbarossa, Emperor of Germany, was now established at Rome, 
and Alexander the Third was in exile north of the Alps, to whose spiritual authority the 
kings of England and France then bowed. 


134 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 


[Book V. 

Becket’s Family banished. The King’s Quarrels, Outrages, and Perfidy. 

Cistercian monastery in Burgundy, called Pontigny, where for two 
years he led a life more austere than any of the monks. 

§ 9. Henry in the mean time sent ambassadors both to the Pope 
and to the King of France, to demand either that the archbishop 
should be given up to him or that he should be deprived of his 
see. Both demands were refused, when the king, who had already 
seized on Becket’s property, revenged himself by banishing all his 
kindred and his friends, to the number of 400. Even women and 
children were thus driven from England in the depth of winter, 
and to increase the grief of the archbishop, they were obliged to 
take an oath to present themselves before him that he might see 
their misery. The exiles, however, were kindly received in France, 
and their cruel treatment excited so much indignation there, that 
when, soon afterward, a war broke out, many of the nobles of 
Brittany, Poitou, Guienne, and other provinces subject to Henry, 
joined the King of France against him. 

§ 10. Whilst these affairs were proceeding, the king was involved 
in a variety of other quarrels, all arising from his unjust desire to 
increase his territories. Indeed he entered on this course even be¬ 
fore he became king. His brother Geoffrey had had the county of 
Anjou bestowed on him by his father [a.d. 1151], and Henry had 
taken an oath to allow him to possess it undisturbed; but this 
did not secure him, for Henry was an habitual breaker of his word. 
He accordingly, in the third year of his reign, seized on Anjou 
and drove Geoffrey into exile, and when Geoffrey died, a few years 
later, he contrived also to obtain possession of the strong city of 
Nantes, in Brittany, where the young prince had been sheltered. 
He thus gained such ascendency in the country that Conan, the 
duke, was obliged to purchase his forbearance by giving his 
daughter Constance in marriage to Henry’s son Geoffrey. 

§ 11. Henry next turned his attention to acquiring a very im¬ 
portant part of the south of France, called the county of Tou¬ 
louse, to which he pretended a claim in right of his wife. In the 
war that ensued [a.d. 1160] he was unsuccessful, although, as has 
been said, he was aided by the military talents of Becket; but at 
its close he, by a shameful strategem, gained a district adjoining 
Normandy called the Vexin, by proposing a marriage between his 
eldest son, Henry, and Margaret, the daughter of the King of 
France. The Vexin was the princess’s dower, and as the parties 
were mere children, it was to remain in the guardianship of the 


THE PLANTAGENETS. 


135 


Chapter I.] 


Attempt to Conquer Wales. 4 Bard’s Satire royally Avenged. 

Templars until they were of age. Henry, however, caused them to 
be married at once, and thus obtained the territory, and the King 
of France was unable to drive him from it. It was- to bring about 
this marriage that Becket, when chancellor, undertook his magni¬ 
ficent embassy, which has been already mentioned. 

§ 12. During the troubled times of Stephen the Welsh had re¬ 
gained much of their country from the Normans, a and a § ^ p m 
as the Flemings and other foreign soldiers recently 
settled by Henry among them were cowardly as well as cruel, they 
seemed likely to be driven out. To prevent this Henry mixed in 
the quarrels of the Welsh princes Owen Gwynneth and Cadwala- 
der his brother, and by supporting the latter, who was the younger, 
who swore fealty to him, tried to reduce the whole country to his 
subjection. He did not succeed, for although he led a large army 
of veteran soldiers against the mountaineers, his expedition ended 
disastrously. On one occasion [a.d. 1157] he was beset in a nai- 
row pass called Consilt, when Henry of Essex, a great noble, who 
bore his banner, threw it down and fled ; the Normans were com¬ 
pletely routed, and the king only saved his life by flight. One of 
the Welsh bards celebrated the triumph of his people by compos¬ 
ing an ode in which he recommended Henry to knight his horse, 
whose speed had preserved him. Henry, on hearing of this, gave way 
to a terrible fit of passion, and again invaded the country, but be¬ 
fore he entered it he took many children as hostages from the 
families of Cadwalader and his friends. He was again foiled, and 
in his rage he had thg barbarity to revenge himself by hanging the 
children. Cadwalader was for a time supported at his court; but 
he was treated with tha scorn that his treachery merited, and was 
at last assassinated by some of the Marchers. 

§ 13. Henry was more successful against the Scots and against 
the partisans of the late King Stephen. Mixing policy with force, 
he induced the King of Scotland to accept the earldom of Hunt¬ 
ingdon instead of the country in the north of England which he 
had so long held. To* break the power of the nobles he adopted 
the policy of his grandfather. He had them narrowly watched, 
and when William the son of Stephen, the Earl of Norfolk, Hugh 
Mortimer the Lord Marcher, or any other great lord was detected 
in any breach of the feudal laws, his castles were at once thrown 
down or taken into the king’s hands, and often his estates were 
seized and the owner driven into exile. Even the Cardinal Henry 


136 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book V. 

A long Quarrel. * Papal Interference, and a Reconciliation. 

of Blois, the Bishop of Winchester and brother of King Stephen,* 
was stripped of liis possessions for venturing to 
a § l, p. 125 . tlie ^ n g(j om without the royal permission; he 

was, however, after a time reinstated, and he was almost the only 
bishop who adhered to Becket in his long controversy with the 
king. 

§ 14. That controversy continued for more than six years. At 
first Becket remained quietly in the monastery of Pontigny; but 
after a time he obtained permission from the Pope to excommuni¬ 
cate some of his chief opponents. Henry, who could not reach 
him personally, persecuted the Cistercian monks in his own domi¬ 
nions for the offence of their French brethren in affording him a 
refuge. Becket then went to the King of France, who received 
him with great honor. Henry on this made war on France, 
when he was so successful that Louis soon agreed to a peace, and 
seemed inclined to abandon the cause of the archbishop; but 
Henry having treated with great barbarity some of his revolted 
subjects of Poitou, whose pardon he had promised in the treaty of 
peace, the French king gave his support to Becket more warmly 
than before, and prepared to take up arms in his cause. 

§ 15. The Pope now tried to reconcile the king to the arch¬ 
bishop, and after long negotiations this was effected in outward 
appearance. The two parties met near Tours. The restoration of 
the archbishop’s possessions was promised, and at last, after an 
absence, of upwards of six years, he came back to Canterbury. 
He was received by the people and his clergy with transports of 
joy, but he had only returned to meet his death. 

§ 16. Just before his reconciliation with the king, a new cause 
of quarrel had arisen, and this had been passed over without any 
formal agreement, so that the archbishop conceived himself en¬ 
titled to take what steps he thought proper regarding it. It had 
always been regarded as the privilege of the Archbishop of Can¬ 
terbury to crown the king, as it is now; but Henry, under the idea 
of securing his succession to the throne, had chosen to have his 
eldest son, a youth of fifteen, crowned during Becket’s exile, and 
by his command the Archbishop of York, the bishops of London, 
Salisbury, Worcester, and other prelates performed the ceremony. 
Becket excommunicated them; and he laid a like penalty on two 
brothers, Ranulf and Robert de Broc, who had had charge of the 
estates of his see during his absence, and had grievously wasted 


Chapter I.] THE PLANTAGENETS. 337 

The King’s Wrath against Becket. Murder of the latter. 

them. The Brocs were prompt to revenge themselves. They 
stopped his provisions, beat his servants, maimed his cattle, killed 
his deer, and even threatened his life, but he remained immova¬ 
ble, and would not take any measures of defence. The bishops 
in the mean time passed over to Normandy to the king, and pite¬ 
ously entreated his protection. Henry fell into a violent rage, 
and demanded what was to be done. The Archbishop of York, 
who had all through his life been a rival of Becket (they had 
been in the household of Archbishop Theobald together), replied, 
“ As long as Thomas lives, my lord king, you will have no peace 
in your kingdom.” The king then exclaimed, “ How long am I 
to be insulted by an upstart priest, who owes all to me ?—a fellow 
who came to court on a lame horse without a saddle now holds 
the throne, and the knights who eat my bread look on! ” 

§ 17. It was soon resolved that the justiciary of Normandy and 
two other nobles should be sent into England to seize the arch¬ 
bishop ; but four of Henry’s knights had secretly left the court 
while the debate was going on, without any direct authority from 
him, but thinking themselves well acquainted with his real wishes. 
They met at* Saltwood Castle, in Kent, where Ranulf de Broc 
resided, and held a consultation with him, the result of which 
was, that on the next morning, which was the 29th of December, 
1170, the whole party set forward for Canterbury. Their inten¬ 
tion apparently was not to kill the archbishop, but to make him a 
prisoner. After an angry interview with him in his palace they 
followed him into the adjoining cathedral. They found him in a 
small chapel in the north transept, and fiercely required him to 
recall his sentences. He refused, and they then attempted to 
carry him out of the church. Becket applied violent language to 
them, shook himself free from one and threw another on the floor. 
They now attacked him with their swords, and laid him dead 
before the altar, after breaking the arm of a monk named Grim, 
who attempted to defend him. The murderers then plundered 
the palace of plate and money, seized on the best horses m the 
stable, and fled. The monks watched the body all night, and on 
the next day, as the Brocs threatened to drag it about the city and 
hang it on a gibbet, they hastily buried it in the crypt. There 
it remained for fifty years, until the grandson of Henry re¬ 
moved it to a splendid shrine behind the high altar of the 
cathedral. 


138 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 


[Book V. 

The King suspected of Murder. His Fears. Condition of Ireland. 

§ 18. The news of the archbishop’s murder caused great alarm, 
if not grief, to King Henry. He knew that he was universally 
considered as having caused it, and he feared that the Pope would 
excommunicate him, and absolve his subjects from their alle¬ 
giance. He therefore sent ambassadors to the Pope to protest his 
innocence, and whilst commissioners were inquiring into all the 
circumstances of the case, Henry, to turn away the attention of 
his people, engaged in an enterprise that had been meditated by 
the early Norman kings, and for which he had himself taken 
some steps several years before. 

§ 19. That enterprise was the conquest of Ireland, which a 
former Pope (Adrian the Fourth, the only Englishman who ever 
attained to that dignity) had granted to him, on the shameless 
pretence that the people were ignorant of the Christian faith. 
The fact was altogether otherwise; for the country had received 
Christianity while the Saxons and Norsemen were still heathens, 
but it had always managed its own religious affairs without the 
interference of the popes of Rome, and was therefore regarded by 
them with jealous dislike. It had been a peaceful shelter for learned 
and pious men while Britain was overrun by the Saxons and the 
Norsemen, and abounded in churches and monasteries; but the 
Norsemen a at length invaded it also, and in conse- 

a § 6, p. 41. q Uence 0 £ ^heir ravages it lost much of its former 
civilization, and was in a manner cut off from intercourse with 
the rest of the world. The Norsemen (or Ostmen, as they were 
afterwards called), on the other hand, who settled principally 
upon the coast, and founded petty kingdoms in Dublin, Wexford, 
Cork, and other seaports, traded with England, and when they 
became Christians their bishops received consecration from the 
archbishops of Canterbury. 

§ 20. Thus the English kings had always partisans in the 
country, and very soon after the Normans came to England some 
adventurers of that nation began to take part in the quarrels 
of its numerous princes. Beside minor chiefs, there were five who 
styled themselves kings, and one of them, termed the Ardriach, was 
recognized as the superior of the whole, and to him they looked 
for redress of grievances. It happened that whilst the quarrel 
between the king and Becket was going on, b Dermot, 
’ P King of Leinster, was driven from his dominions 
by the Ardriach, for his misconduct in carrying off the wife of 


Chapter I.] THE PLANTAGENETS. 139 

Troubles in Ireland. Henry seizes it. Acquitted of Becket’s Murder. 

Ruarc, King of Meath.* 1 Dermot repaired to Henry in Normandy, 
and offered to become his vassal if he would reinstate 

a § 11, p. 42. 

him. Henry declined to interfere, but allowed 
him to address himself to his knights, and among them Dermot 
found one who listened to his promises of making him the heir 
of his kingdom, and agreed to undertake his cause. 

§ 21. This was Richard of Chepstow (ttlso called Strongboiv), 
the son of a noble who had conquered a great part of West Wales 
(now Pembrokeshire), but himself a man of small property. He 
was famed alike for courtly manners and military skill, and he 
had great influence among the Norman knights and their followers 
who dwelt on the borders of Wales. Hence he had little difficulty 
in inducing a number of them to assist him. He first sent forward 
two brothers named Fitzgerald and Fitzstephen, who landed near 
Wexford with a few soldiers, and he soon followed them with a 
larger body of well-armed Norman horse and Welsh foot. The 
native Irish, who were badly provided with weapons and had no 
armor, could not stand against them. Dermot was replaced, 
when, according to his agreement, he gave his daughter Eva in 
marriage to Richard, and declared him his heir; and dying in the 
course of a year, Strongbow became king. The news of this was 
displeasing to Henry, who hastily collected a large force, passed 
over to Ireland [a.d. 1171] and seized on Dermot’s kingdom, 
which, however, he soon regranted to Richard, only keeping the 
seaports in his own hands, and appointing Hugh Lacy governor 
of Leinster. Henry now produced the grant from the Pope, and 
having many friends among the Irish bishops, his cause was 
espoused by them; in consequence he was received as king of all 
Ireland, even the Ardriach acknowledging himself as his vassal. 
After a stay of seven months in the island, Henry went back to 
Normandy, where the Pope’s commissioners 1 * soon b § 18 p m 
after declared that he was innocent of the blood of 
the archbishop. 

§ 22. This trouble was scarcely appeased when a new one broke 
out in the king’s family, which was the direct result of that 
shameful marriage that he had made with the divorced Queen of 
France. He wished to divide his dominions among his sons, and 
forgetting how he had himself disregarded the will of his own 
father, he had his eldest son, Henry, crowned as his successor in 
England and Normandy, thinking thus to secure it to him. He 


140 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 


[Book V. 


Royal Family Quarrel- Civil War. King of Scotland a Prisoner. 

assigned Aquitaine to Richard, and Brittany to Geoffrey. He, 
however, had no intention of parting with the government of the 
provinces to them, but their mother persuaded them to demand it, 
and when this was refused, the three youths fled to the court of 
the King of France. The queen attempted to follow them, dis¬ 
guised as a page, but was taken, and was kept a prisoner for Di ¬ 
rest of her husband’s life. 

§ 23. Both the King of France and the King of Scotland had 
many causes of quarrel against Henry, and they eagerly supported 
his rebellious children. In consequence civil war broke out in 
England as well as in Normandy. Carlisle was taken by the 
Scots, and Norwich by the Earl of Leicester, a friend of Prince 
Henry. But the king, though a bad man, was a skilful soldier. 
He defeated his sons’ troops, and at last put an end to the rebel¬ 
lion. His sons, however, had learnt their strength, and during 
the whole remainder of his life they made war sometimes on one 
another, and sometimes on him, till at last he died defeated and 
broken-hearted. 

§ 24. Whilst the wfir with his sons- still continued, the king 
quietly abandoned the claims that he had made at Clarendon, 
and which had caused the death of Becket. He suffered a new 
archbishop (Richard of Dover) to be elected, and was satisfied 
with his oath, “saving his order;” he also made a pilgrimage to 
Canterbury, and did penance at the tomb of Becket [a.d. 1174], 
who was already esteemed a martyr and a saint, and to whom his 
former adversary, Richard de Lucy, the justiciary, soon after 
erected a church, the first of more than sixty dedicated to him, 
which still exist. 

§ 25. On the same day that Henry did penance at Canterbury 
the King of Scotland was made prisoner at Alnwick, in Northum¬ 
berland. He was carried over to Normandy, and was not re¬ 
leased until he had promised to surrender several strong castles on 
the borders, and had done homage to Henry and his son for his 
kingdom. 

§ 26. Henry had now a brief interval of peace, and he employed 
it in improving the administration of the laws in his states. Up 
to this time all persons who had causes in dispute were obliged to 
attend wherever the king happened to be, and by following him 
from England to Normandy, and from Normandy to Poitou, and 
from Poitou back to England, they were usually ruined, however 


Chapter I] THE PLANTAGENETS. 141 

Courts of Justice established. War in Ireland. Henry’s Power diminished. 

their case might at last be decided. To remedy this, Henry, in 
the year 1176, divided England into six districts, and appointed 
judges to visit each, who had power to settle most causes. He, 
however, charged his new judges to lay heavy penalties on offend¬ 
ers, and thus he was at least as great a gainer by the change as any 
of his subjects. 

§ 27. The Irish, who had been overawed by the large army that 
Henry brought with him, disowned their submission as soon as he 
w r as gone, and united with their former enemies, the Ostmen, in a 
desperate attempt to drive out the invaders. The king’s scattered 
parties were cut off all over the country, and the rest were obliged 
to shelter themselves in the seaports; but here they were attacked 
by the Ostmen ships, and they would soon have been destroyed 
had not Henry induced large numbers of the fierce Normans and 
Welsh to proceed to their aid by offering grants of land to all ad¬ 
venturers who would undertake to complete the conquest. These 
well-armed new-comers drove back the natives, and firmly estab¬ 
lished themselves in every part.. They, however, conquered the 
country for themselves, and not for the king; and in after-times 
these Anglo-Irish, as they were termed, were more hostile to the 
English government than the natives were. They intermarried 
with the Irish, adopted their manners and customs and language, 
and took new names. Their eminent men considered themselves 
as independent princes; and it was only in the seaports that Henry 
had taken into his own hands, and which were always garrisoned 
by the royal troops, that the English kings, for full 400 years, had 
any real authority in Ireland. Henry created his youngest son, 
John, Lord of Ireland, and the young prince paid a visit to the 
island in the year 1185; but he'and his gay courtiers disgusted 
the Irish chiefs who came to them, by their insolent behavior. 
He was soon recalled, leaving the government to his deputy, Hugh 
Lacy, who had for his share of the spoil the former kingdom of 
Meath. 

§ 28. The latter years of Henry’s reign were not more peaceable 
or happy than the early ones had been. It is true that he was 
reconciled to Louis the King of France. He even agreed to un¬ 
dertake a crusade for the relief of the Holy Land in his company; 
and the French king visited England as a pilgrim to the tomb of 
Becket, But the proposed crusade was not carried out by Henry, 
and his refusal to embark in it was afterwards the cause of a 


142 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book Y. 

The King’s Sons at War. The Kingdom of Jerusalem. • 

quarrel between him and his son Richard. In the mean time the 
King of France died, and his son and successor, the eminent 
Philip Augustus, was too jealous of Henry’s vast possessions in 
France to be friendly with him. Wars, too, broke out between 
his sons. Henry and Geoffrey united in making war on their 
brother Richard, who ruled in Aquitaine like a sovereign prince. 
The king commanded them to desist, but to no purpose. At last 
the young Henry died suddenly [June 11, a.d. 1183], and peace 
was restored for a while. Then the ambitious Geoffrey again made 
war on Richard; and though they were at last formally reconciled 
in a great council held at London in the presence of their father, 
it was only the death of Geoffrey, soon afterward, that prevented 
another war. 

§ 29. The kingdom that had been founded by the Crusaders 
in Palestine, in the time of William Rufus, was now [a.d. 1186] 
in a state of extreme danger. King Baldwin the Fourth was a 
leper, and being thus incapable of reigning, the power of govern¬ 
ing the state was contested for by his sister Sibylla and a powerful 
noble, Raymond of Toulouse. Raymond leagued himself with the 
Saracens, who were now led by a renowned military commander 
named Saladin, a man who had risen to power by the sword, and 
who was resolutely bent on the reconquest of Jerusalem. 

§ 30. Baldwin the Fourth was succeeded by his nephew, Bald¬ 
win the Fifth, a child, and on his death, soon afterward, Heraclius, 
the Patriarch of Jerusalem, was sent to England to offer the crown 

»§ 7 p ns Henry, whose grandfather, Fulk of Anjou, a 

was also grandfather of Baldwin the Fourth. Henry 
declined the crown, which was at last bestowed on Guy of Lusig- 
nan, the husband of Sibylla. Soon after this, Saladin defeated the 
Christians at Tiberias through the treachery of Raymond of Tou¬ 
louse, made Guy a prisoner, and at last captured Jerusalem. The 

b § 16 p 111 news this ca l am ify induced Henry to assume the 
' cross, b and to promise to proceed to the relief of the 
Holy Land, where one brave prince, Conrad of Montferrat, the 
brother-in-law of Sibylla, held possession of Tyre, the last frag¬ 
ment of the Christian kingdom. 

§ 31. But before King Henry could proceed on the crusade, if he 
ever intended it, which is very doubtful, he was involved in a 
quarrel with the young King of France and his own son Richard, 
which ended in his death. This quarrel arose, however, quite as 


THE PLANTAGrENETS. 


143 


CnAPTER I.] 

England and France at War. Henry’s Troubles and Death. 

much in consequence of his own bad conduct as anything else. 
He had, twenty years before, contracted a marriage for his son 
Richard with Adelais, the sister of the King of France, then a mere 
child, and had got possession of a large district as her dower. The 
princess conducted herself in such a manner that Richard, when 
she grew up, refused to take her for his wife, but Henry, in spite of 
this, kept possession of her lands. Her brother claimed them from 
him; Richard joined in the demand, and as he was a vassal of the 
King of France, was called on to take up arms in his cause. Henry 
was at length attacked by the King of France and his own son, was 
driven from Touraine by them, and was soon after obliged to sue 
for peace, which he only obtained upon paying a large sum of 
money and giving up the princess’s lands. 

§ 32. Thus foiled in his projects, Henry retired to the castle of 
Chinon, where a new grief awaited him. He had agreed to pardon 
all who had combined against him, and he was struck to the, heart 
to find the name of his youngest and favorite child, John, among 
them. His wife was in prison, and his eldest son had just made 
war on him, but this discovery seemed worse than all, and he fell 
ill and died very soon afterward [July 6, 1189], his only attend¬ 
ant, out of his numerous family, being one of his natural children, 
named G-eoffrey, who afterwards became Archbishop of York. The 
king’s body was carried to Fontevraud, in Anjou. Richard, his 
eldest surviving son, and now heir to the throne, who heard of his 
father’s illness too late to see him alive, followed the corpse in 
much real sorrow. 

§ 33. Such was the melancholy end of the first king of the House 
of Plantagenet. His life affords a very striking lesson. His whole 
object appears to have been to enlarge his dominions, and though 
at first he had great apparent success, the end was that he died 
almost a fugitive. He led a very immoral life, and he married a 
princess of similar character, who taught his own children to rebel 
against him. He acted on many occasions with great treachery, 
and at other times he showed extreme cruelty; and he was notori¬ 
ous for his bad faith, which he attempted to justify by saying that 
it was better to have to repent of words than of deeds. 


144 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 


Coronation of Richard the First. 


[Book Y. 

The Jews. 


CHAPTER n. 

reign of Richard the First, [a. d. 1189 to 1199.] 

§ 1. Richard, who was sumamed Coeur de Lion, was crowned 
in Westminster Abbey, by the Archbishop of Canterbury, on the 3d 
of September, 1189. The ceremony on that occasion was unusu¬ 
ally magnificent. The crown was borne before Richard, in the 
procession to the abbey, by the Earl of Albemarle. The royal 
candidate walked under a rich canopy of silk borne on four lances, 
each of which was held by a great baron. On each side of him 
walked a prelate—the Bishops of Durham and Bath—and his path 
up to the high altar of the abbey was spread with cloth of the 
Tyrian dye. On the steps of the altar he was received by Baldwin, 
the archbishop, who administered to him the usual oath that he 
would (1) through life bear peace, honor, and reverence to God, the 
church and its ordinances ; (2) that he would exercise right, justice, 
and law toward his subjects; and (3) that he would abrogate 
unrighteous laws and customs, enact good ones, and keep the same 
in good faith, without any mental reservation. 

§ 2. The king then cast off his upper garment, put sandals 
or buskins of gold on his feet, and was anointed from the 
ampulla of holy oil on the head, breast, and shoulders. He then 
received the cap, tunic, dalmatica, sword, spurs, and mantle, 
each being presented by the proper officer in due order of succes¬ 
sion. The unction over, and the king thus royally arrayed, he 
was led up to the altar, where the archbishop adjured him in the 
name of Almighty God not to assume the royal dignity unless he 
fully proposed to keep the oaths he had sworn. Richard repeated 
his solemn promises, and with his own hands took the ponderous 
crown from off the altar, “in signification that he held it only 
from God.” He then delivered it to the archbishop, who in¬ 
stantly put it on his head, and so completed all the ceremonies of 
coronation. 

§ 3. A massacre and plunder of the Jews in London, as well as 
elsewhere, immediately followed. These people were then numer¬ 
ous in England. Many of them were learned men, while all were 
reputed to be wealthy. The superstitious English fancied that 
they practised magic, and they were forbidden to appear at the 


Chapter II.] THE PLANTAGENETS. 145 

Massacre and Plunder of the Jews. Richard’s Pretensions. 

coronation. A few ventured to come, believing that the costly 
presents which they laid at the king’s feet would insure their 
safety. Richard spumed them from his presence. His attendants 
chased them from the royal hall, and the people fell upon and 
butchered them. All the other Jews in the city were attacked. 
Their houses were fired, and men, women, and children were 
burned to death in them, while the king could not be induced to 
leave the banquet hall to stop the flow of blood. He permitted 
the butchery to go on for twenty-four hours,-until the malice of 
the Christians was satiated. Like cruelty was practised upon the 
Jews elsewhere. In York the work of blood was fearful. Seve¬ 
ral hundreds of the Jews, with their families, fled to the castle, 
and attempted to defend themselves in one of the towers. It was 
impossible; so the men destroyed their treasures, killed their 
wives and children, and then themselves, rather than fall into the 
hands of the barbarians. 

§ 4. So the reign of the royal assassin and robber began. He 
was an ambitious crusader. He was more of a knight-errant than 
a king, and gratified his vanity and love of plunder by engaging 
most heartily in the unholy wars already mentioned. a 

• a o P* 41'*- 

History, romance, and song, uttered by pnnces, 
priests, and bards, have lauded him as a model of a Christian 
gentleman and worthy defender of the religion of Christ, be¬ 
cause he fought so gallantly in the wars upon the Turks. He 
had entered upon his crusading career even before he came to the 
throne. He had been the first prince in France to assume the red 
cross ; b and he tried to palliate his late revolt 0 by b § 16) p m. 
pretending that it had been caused, in part at least, ^ ^ ^ 

by his indignation at seeing his father so much less ^ 31, p ‘ ' 
earnest than himself. His first step had been to release his 
mother from prison; and in the hope of attaching his brother 
John to his interests, he acted most generously toward him, be¬ 
stowing upon him large estates. 

§ 5. Richard, whilst he governed Aquitaine, had for his chan¬ 
cellor a Norman priest of low birth, named "William de Long- 
champ. This man he now made Chancellor of England, and soon 
afterwards Bishop of Ely. Longchamp was skilful in all means, 
whether good or bad, of raising money, and by his advice the king 
sold honors and offices, and granted charters of privilege, as lav¬ 
ishly, says a writer who lived in his time, as if he never intended 
7 


146 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book Y. 

Extortion of the Chief Minister. Departure for a Crusade. 

to return to Iris kingdom. The fortresses on the border, which 
King Henry had extorted from the king of Scotland as the price 
of his freedom, 11 were surrendered for a sum of money, 
a § 25, p. 140. and he wag re i ease( i f rom the oath of fealty that he 

had taken. The Bishop of Durham bought the earldom of Nor¬ 
thumberland ; charters and grants were ordered to be brought in, 
and their holders had to pay heavily for having them sealed 
afresh. Geoffrey, the king’s natural brother, b had 
b § 28, p. 141. k een name d Archbishop of York by the Pope, and 
even he was heavily fined for having accepted the title before he 
had obtained the king’s permission. Longchamp was sent to 
York, and he raised a great sum of money from some of the rioters 
there (for many of them were rich men), who had 
c § 3, p. 144. incitec | the attack on the Jews c because they were 
their creditors. The chancellor, however, found out what they 
owed the Jews, and made them pay it to the king. 

§ 6. By these and other means, which were readily submitted to, 
as it was for an object that all men then approved, a vast treasure 
was soon got together, and in April, 1190, only nine months after 
Richard’s accession to the throne, a very large fleet was ready, and 
sailed from Dartmouth. In this crusade Philip Augustus, the 
ablest king of France since Charlemagne, was his colleague. 
The English fleet consisted of more than 100 large vessels fit to 
carry a great host, but having then few soldiers on board. Many 
others were laden with horses and arms. The nominal comman¬ 
ders were Gerard, Archbishop of Aix, and Bernard, Bishop of 
Bayonne, but the real rulers were Richard de Camville and Robert 
de Sabloil, who were styled sea-justices, and were assisted by a 
skilful mariner named William de Fortz, of Oleron. The fleet was 
dispersed by a storm soon after leaving England, but it was gathered 
together again at Lisbon, where it assisted the people against the 
Mohammedans, who were ravaging that region. Then it sailed to 
Marseilles, where the troops that had marched through France 
were taken on board, and were safely carried to Messina, in the 
island of Sicily, where they waited for the arrival of Richard. 

§ 7. The king solemnly assumed the scrip and staff of a pilgrim, 
in the cathedral of Canterbury, even before the fleet sailed, and 
then he hastened to France, having first appointed Longchamp 
guardian of the realm. That act greatly offended his brothers 
John and Geoffrey, but particularly Geoffrey, in whose service 


Chapter II.] THE PLANTAGENETS. 147 

Richard Tarries on the Way. His abuses of Wealth and Power. 

Longchamp had once been. Richard compelled his brothers to 
take an oath that they would not come into England for three 
years without the chancellor’s permission; and he gave Long- 
champ for his colleagues the Bishop of Durham and two nobles, 
who were to be a check on him in his management of the royal 
treasure. 

§ 8. The English and French armies assembled at Vezelai in 
July, and marched together to the sea-coast, where they embarked 
on board the English fleet and some Genoese vessels for Sicily. 
The King of France, fearing the sea, travelled by land; but Richard 
sailed in a light galley with a few attendants, touched at the most 
remarkable places in Italy on his way, and so did not reach Mes¬ 
sina until near the end of September. 

§ 9. Here the king found his troops engaged in constant con¬ 
tests with the inhabitants, who were as treacherous and cruel as 
their visitors, many of them descended from the Saracens, and 
willing to do all that they dared to insult and injure the crusa¬ 
ders. Richard acted summarily with them. He erected gibbets 
and hung many of the offenders, for, as a chronicler who was in 
his. army assures us, he considered all who were within his power 
as his subjects, and he held it to be his duty as a king not to let any 
transgression go unpunished. His conduct everywhere was gov¬ 
erned by the spirit of the sentiment that “ might makes right.” 
He had, beside, a family quarrel to settle, as he found on his ar¬ 
rival that his sister Joanna, who was the widow of William 
the Good of Sicily, had been despoiled of her dower and impri¬ 
soned by Tancred, a usurper. He at once released his sister, and 
seized on a castle which he gave her as a residence. He next oc¬ 
cupied a monastery as a stronghold for himself, and fed his men 
with provisions from his ships, as the people refused them all sup¬ 
plies. The King of France arrived during these quarrels, and 
sided with the Messinese; and thus disputes broke out between 
him and Richard, which eventually ruined their enterprise. 

§ 10. At last, angry because of the just hostility of the people, 
Richard attacked and easily captured Messina, when Tancred was 
obliged to agree to pay a large compensation to Joanna. Richard, 
in return, promised to support Tancred on the throne. By this he 
made an enemy of Henry, King of the Romans, a German prince 
who claimed it in right of his wife. 

§ 1L Whilst the nations of Europe were gathering their forces 


148 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book Y. 

Perjury of the King of Jerusalem. Siege of Acre. Richard goes there. 

for the relief of the Holy Land, Guy, the nominal king of Jerusa¬ 
lem, had been released by Saladin on taking an oath to leave the 
country. He, however, was released from his oath by the clergy, 
and showing more courage and conduct than he had hereto foie 
done, he assembled some troops, and being refused admission to 
Tyre, where Conrad of Montferrat ruled, he laid siege to Acre, a 
strong town on the sea-coast that had been not long before captured 
by the Mohammedans. Saladin marched against him, but was not 
able to drive him off, neither was Guy able to take the city, for 
the force of the Christians was divided between him and Conrad, 
and there were two kings but no kingdom. The Emperor of Ger¬ 
many, Frederic Barbarossa, was the first prince to march to his 
assistance; but he was drowned in crossing a stream, and his troops 
nearly all perished from sickness. 

§ 12. The King of Sicily sent Guy some aid, and numerous 
knights joined him from different countries, which enabled him to 
hold his ground. His spirits were kept up by the expectation of 
the arrival of the English and French kings, and thus he continued 
the siege, though sickness and famine made great havoc among 
his men, and as he had no fleet he could not prevent the people in 
the town from receiving abundant succors from Egypt. At last, 
before the second winter set in, Henry, Count of Champagne, who 
was Richard’s nephew, was sent to his aid with a body of soldiers, 
but the kings and their armies remained in Sicily. Richard kept 
his Christmas there in magnificent style, indulgingin idleness and 
debauchery. He gave bountifully from his treasures for the relief 
of a great number of French knights and nobles who had spent 
all their substance in the expedition, which greatly offended their 
king; and he bestowed liberal sums on many ladies and other ex¬ 
iles who had lost their inheritances in Palestine. 

§ 13. Before the time for the sailing of the fleet arrived, Queen 
Eleanor reached Sicily, bringing with her as a wife for Richard, 
Berengaria of Navarre, a princess with whom he had become 
acquainted while he ruled in Aquitaine. It being the season of Lent, 
they could not then be married, and Queen Eleanor returned to 
England, leaving Berengaria in the care of Joanna, the sister of 
Richard. The French fleet sailed first, and reached Acre -without 
difficulty ; but the English, which left Sicily some days later, was 
scattered by a storm. After tossing about for many days, a part 
of the fleet reached Cyprus, where some of the vessels were seized 


149 


Chapter II.] THE PLANTAGENETS. 

Richard seizes Cyprus. Loss of Life at Acre. The French King. 

and plundered by Isaac Conmenus, a Greek, wlio reigned there and 
styled himself emperor; and Richard’s sister and his intended queen 
only escaped capture by refusing a treacherous invitation to land. 
The king had almost reached Palestine when he heard of this ; he 
repaired to Cyprus, defeated Isaac, dethroned him, and sent him a 
prisoner to Margath, a fortress in Syria that belonged to the 
Knights of St. John. He then appointed one of his sea-justices to 
rule the island, restored to the people their ancient laws, which 
Isaac had abolished, and married Berengaria. That was in the 
autumn of 1191, when Richard was thirty-four years of age. He 
sailed very shortly afterward, and reached Acre, having captured 
a large Saracen vessel on his way. 

§ 14. Richard was received there with great joy, as his military 
skill and courage, and his liberality to all who served him, were 
so well known; and the speedy capture of the city that had now 
resisted the whole Christian host for nearly two years was consi¬ 
dered certain. The loss of life among the crusaders had been 
fearful. The sword and the plague had swept away six archbishops, 
twelve bishops, forty earls, five hundred barons, and one hundred 
and fifty men of “ the meaner sort.” 

§ 15. Richard found the King of France a in ill-health, and me¬ 
ditating a return home. He fell ill himself also from a g 6 p 146 
the heat of the climate, but in spite of that he pushed 
forward the siege with vigor. His fleet blocked up the harbor, 
and thus prevented further succor to the garrison. He had power¬ 
ful machines built, called petraria, for battering down the walls, 
and others called mangonels, for casting stones, and he employed 
his men incessantly in undermining the towers. The French king 
endeavored to imitate him, but he had neither his skill nor his 
wealth. He was more of a statesman than a soldier. The French 
engines were soon burnt by the enemy, for they were not protected 
with hides as those of Richard were, and the French knights 
showed so great a desire to enter Richard’s service that constant 
quarrels ensued between the two kings. Philip Augustus was 
looked upon contemptuously, and Richard was hailed as the head 
of the whole army. 

§ 16. Though he was so weak that he was obliged to be carried 
about on a litter, he directed all the operations, and exposed 
himself to every danger; and he sometimes showed, his skill as an 
archer by discharging his cross-bow as he lay on his couch, parti- 


150 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book V. 

Surrender of Acre. The French King returns home. Cruelty to Prisoners. 

cularly on one occasion when he saw a Saracen parading on the 
ramparts in the armor of a knight who had been slain. At last, 
when the walls began to give way before his terrible engines, he 
offered four pieces of gold for every stone torn from them, and 
such havoc was soon made that the Saracens were obliged to sur¬ 
render before Richard had been a month in Palestine. He, how¬ 
ever, acted unjustly in claiming all the glory, and in ordering the 
banner of the Duke of Austria, who had very* bravely captured 
one of the towers, to be thrown into the ditch. He had to pay 
afterwards for this insolent act by a long captivity. 

§ 17. The two kings took possession of Acre, which they divided 
between them. Richard set diligently to work to restore the 
fortifications, after which he wished to march at once to Jerusalem, 
but the king of France, pleading ill-health, suddenly abandoned 
the crusade and returned home. To make the passage he begged 
two of his best galleys from Richard, and then he departed, after 
taking an oath not to do anything to injure him in Europe. But 
he did not keep his word. 

§ 18. Richard had now the whole burden of the war cast upon 
him, and he prosecuted it vigorously, though he had much trouble 
from the hostility of Conrad of Montferrat, who claimed the king¬ 
dom, and was supported by the Duke of Burgundy, under whose 
command were the French forces. Richard favored Guy; in 
consequence the French refused to serve, and many of them 
remained idly at Acre, while the English king fought in the field 
against Saladin. 

§ 10. When Acre was surrendered, the garrison, to save their 
lives, promised that Saladin should pay a large sum of money and 
should also release many Christian prisoners; but he refused to 
abide by this agreement, on which Richard put to death the Saracen 
hostages, and Saladin in return murdered his prisoners. After 
these acts of mutual barbarity, Richard marched out of Acre and 
encamped in the fields, though many of his men followed him 
unwillingly. The Saracens attacked him, but were always beaten 
off. and when all was ready he marched along the sea-coast towards 
Ascalon, his ships keeping near and supplying his men with pro¬ 
visions. The march of twenty days was one continued battle; but 
at Arsoof the Saracens were so completely overthrown that they 
destroyed Ascalon and other fortresses and retired to Jerusalem. 
Richard wished to restore Ascalon, but the French opposed it; 


Chapter II.] THE PLANTAGENETS. 151 

Richard and Saladin. Affairs in Ireland. Richard prepares to return. 

many of them retired to Acre, and he was obliged to halt for 
nearly two months at Joppa before he could collect his army 
again. He had employed the time also in restoring some of the 
abandoned fortresses, and at last, in the month of November, 1191, 
he encamped at Ramla, the Arimathea of Scripture, within twenty 
miles of the Holy City. 

§ 20. Saladin now made some proposals for peace, and presents 
and courtesies were exchanged between him and Richard. The 
negotiations were carried on by the brother of Saladin, who was 
named Saphadin, and who professed to be desirous of marrying 
Richard’s sister, Joanna; the princess, however, refused to listen 
to the project, and the plan was abandoned. The enemy continued 
to harass the Christians, cutting off their convoys of provisions and 
murdering the stragglers; the weather was very severe, and at last, 
after a two months’ stay, Richard was obliged to retire to Ascalon, 
which he now fortified, and there he remained until the spring, 
when he received such an account of the proceedings of his enemies 
in Europe that he resolved to .return to his dominions as soon as he 
honorably could. 

§ 21. Richard had hardly left England before Long- a g 5 p 145 
champ a began to conduct himself tyrannically, and 
he soon drove away the Bishop of Durham and his other col¬ 
leagues. Prince John, on this, broke the oath that he had 
taken, b came to England, and seized on several castles 
beside those that Richard had intrusted to him. The b § 7> p ‘ 1 
Archbishop Geoffrey 0 also came, but was seized at c § 5 , p. 145 . 
Dover and thrown into prison. Prince John espoused 
his cause, and marched to London, when Longchamp fled in the 
disguise of a woman to Flanders, and his post of governor of the 
kingdom was given to the Archbishop of Rouen. Soon after this 
the King of France returned, and John, by promising to give up 
Normandy, secured his concurrence in an attempt to seize on the 
kingdom. Longchamp sent intelligence of these events to Richard, 
who at once saw the necessity of returning to Europe if he would 
preserve his kingdom. By way of a final effort, he, in June, 1192, 
marched to Betenoble, within four miles of Jerusalem, and remain¬ 
ed there for a month, when, finding the city too strong to be taken, 
and his men and horses dying from thirst among the mountains, 
lie quitted the spot and marched back to Acre, after strengthening 
Ascalon and Joppa in his way. 


152 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book Y. 

Richard leaves Palestine. Is a Prisoner in Germany. Tried as a Murderer. 

§ 22. Scarcely had he reached Acre when he learned that Joppa 
was besieged by Saladin, and could scarcely hold out a day. He 
at once hastened to its relief, and performed acts of almost incredi¬ 
ble bravery in driving oif the enemy; but his exertions brought on 
an illness, so that his life was despaired of, when Saladin again 
made proposals for peace, and by the mediation of Saphadin a 
truce for three years was agreed on, Richard expressly stating that 
he desired it only that he might preserve his kingdom, and that he 
would again visit Palestine and renew the war. 

§ 23. The terms agreed to were that the sea-coast should remain 
in the hands of the Christians, and Jerusalem in the hands of 
Saladin, but that Christian pilgrims should be allowed freely to 
visit it. Many of the army did so, and they were protected by 
Saladin as far as he could from the fury of his followers; but 
Richard himself declined to go, for he said he would not owe to 
the favor of an infidel what he had not been able to obtain from 
the gift of God. 

§ 24. Richard now sent his queen and his sister and the main 
body of his fleet away, and they all reached England in safety. 
He remained behind a few days longer, and when he sailed [Octo¬ 
ber 9, 1195] his ship was driven by a storm into the Adriatic. 
Being desirous of reaching Normandy as early as possible, he 
endeavored to travel through Germany, with few attendants, in 
disguise, and calling himself Hugh the Merchant. His liberal 
presents, however, aroused suspicion, and though two or three 
knights who had served under him in Palestine, from admiration 
for his character, suffered him to pass, he was at last [Dec. 20] 
Seized at Erperg, near Vienna, by order of that Duke of Austria 
whose banner he had cast down. a He had a still 
§ 16, p. 14. mQre p Qwer f u i enemy in the emperor (Henry the 
Sixth), as he was that king of the Romans whom he had offended 
in Sicily. b The emperor, hearing of Richard’s cap- 
§ 10 , p. 147. (j eman( j ec [ hi m from the Duke of Austria, and 
shut him up in a castle in the Tyrol. Longchamp discovered the 
place of his confinement, and on the application of Queen Eleanor, 
the Pope (who was esteemed the general protector of all crusaders) 
ordered him to be set at liberty, and excommunicated the Duke of 
Austria for seizing him. The emperor paid no regard to the 
order of the Pope, and instead of releasing him, he produced 
Richard before a meeting of the German princes, where he 


Chapter II.] THE PLANTAGENETS. 153 

Richard’s Eansom and Release. Returns to England. War with France. His Death. 

charged him with the murder of Conrad of Montferrat, and many 
other crimes. 

§ 25. These charges were entirely untrue, and Richard, in an 
eloquent speech, cleared himself of them all, to the satisfaction of 
the princes; but he could not obtain his liberty without promising 
to pay a heavy ransom, in return for which the emperor bestowed 
on him the empty title of King of Provence. The money was 
raised in England, even the church plate being sold for the pur¬ 
pose ; but the emperor, after he had received a large part of it, 
was bribed by the King of France and Prince John a 
still to keep Richard in prison. The German prrnces, 
however, compelled him to release him, and Richard was then set 
at liberty, after a confinement of more than a year, on giving hos¬ 
tages for the payment of the remainder of his ransom. 

§ 26. Thus at last, after an absence of nearly four years, the 
lion-hearted king again landed in England [March 13, 1194]. 
He disembarked at Sandwich, and walked thence barefoot to 
Canterbury to return thanks to God, in the cathedral there, for 
his deliverance. This duty accomplished, he speedily captured 
the castles that his brother John had seized; was crowned a 
second time at Winchester, and then hastening into Normandy, 
he, at the intercession of their mother, freely forgave his brother 
John, although, owing to his treachery, the King of France was 
then in possession of nearly the whole of the province, as well as 
of Anjou, Touraine, and Maine. 

§ 27. From this time until his death, though with some short 
intervals of truce, Richard carried on a fierce war with the treach¬ 
erous King of France. Philip Augustus was twice defeated, at 
Fretteval and at Gisors. In the first battle he lost all the records 
of his kingdom (which kings then usually carried about with 
them), and in the second he fell into the river Eure in his flight, 
and nearly lost his life. At last, early in the year 1199, some dis¬ 
turbances broke out in Poitou which Richard marched to suppress. 
He led the attack on a castle called Chalus Chabrol, and had 
forced his way to the inner court, when he received his death- 
wound from an arrow discharged from the only tower that was 
still defended by Bertrand de Gurdun, whose father and two 
brothers Richard had slain with his own hand. Richard lay 
twelve days in pain, and then, on the 6th of April, 1199, he died, 
at the age of forty-two years. He had been persuaded by his 


154 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book Y. 

King Richard’s Burial. His Character. His Successor. 

mother to pass over Arthur, the son of his brother Geoffrey, and name 
John as his successor. By his own desire his body was buried at 
the foot of his father’s tomb at Fontevraud, and his heart was sent 
to Rouen, a town for which he. had always professed a great 
affection. 

§ 28. “King Richard,” says one of his fellow-crusaders, “was 
tall of stature, and graceful in figure; his hair between red and 
auburn; his limbs were straight and flexible ; his appearance was 
commanding, and his manners and habit suitable. He was liberal, 
eloquent, prudent; and though impatient of an injury, and im¬ 
pelled irresistibly to vindicate his rights, all that he did was 
characterized by innate nobleness of mind.” It was in this sense 
that the well-known appellation of Cceur de Lion was bestowed 
on him; not merely to style him an undaunted soldier, but to 
ascribe to him the perfection of all kingly qualities as then under¬ 
stood, as the lion was then esteemed the most noble of beasts; 

§ 29. But the claim for the courageous knight of “ innate 
nobleness of mind ” was indefensible, for he did not possess it. If 
valor was synonymous with virtue, then he was possessed of 
great moral qualities. But, as in his case, valor may be linked 
with absolute baseness. Richard was, indeed, valorous in war, 
but he knew little and cared less for the great qualities of the time 
ideal of chivalry. He was faithless in love; false with his pro¬ 
mises; cruel, extravagant, and dishonest. He was not always 
even brave when away from the excitements of war. He was a bad 
son; a bad husband; a bad father; anything but a Christian 
gentleman. He had more of intellectual culture than was then 
usual. He was a persuasive orator and a fair poet; and sometimes 
assumed the functions of the troubadour. As a military leader 
and castle-builder, he was among the foremost men of his time. 


CHAPTER IH. 

reign of John. [a.d. 1199 to 1216.] 

§ 1. Richard left no legitimate children, and his brother John, 
the youngest son of Henry the Second, became his successor. 
When John wa 3 only eleven years old his father proclaimed him 



Chapter III.] THE PLANTAGENETS. 155 

Coronation of King John. His Troubles in Normandy. His Cruelties. 

Lord of Ireland; and it was when he was at the eighteenth year 

of his age that he was sent to that island, as we have 

° a § 27, p. 141. 

seen,* to take upon himself the duties of his office. 

His conduct there showed his unfitness for administrative duties, 
and no great province was bestowed on him, as had been done by 
his eider brothers, and he was hence contemptuously styled John 
Lackland. He bore this position uneasily, and was constantly 
plotting against his father or his brothers; but, though often de¬ 
tected, he always managed to regain their favor. Hence Richard 
named him as his successor, as being his nearest of kin, and by a 
lavish use of the royal treasure he secured the support of his 
brother’s large bands of mercenary troops. Accordingly he 
was at once received as Duke of Normandy, whilst his nephew 
Arthur, a boy of thirteen, was acknowledged in Anjou, and 
was taken under the protection of Richard’s old rival, the 
King of France. 

§ 2. Earl John was in Normandy when the king died. He sent 
Hubert Walter, the Archbishop of Canterbury, into England, who, 
by threats and bribery, procured his reception as king by a coun¬ 
cil held at Northampton, and soon afterward crowned him [May 
29, 1199] at Westminster Abbey, on Ascension-day, scarcely two 
months after Richard’s death. John was at that time thirty-four 
years of age. At twenty-four he married Isabel of Gloucester. He 
divorced her, and at about the time of his accession to the throne 
he married Isabel of Angouleme. After his coronation John pass¬ 
ed frequently backwards and forwards between England and Nor¬ 
mandy, and put his fortresses in the latter country into so good a 
state of defence that Philip of France soon agreed to acknowledge 
him as king, and seemed more inclined to strip Arthur of his pos¬ 
sessions than to assist him in his claims. 

§ 3. That young prince met with an unexpected ally in Hugh 
le Brun, the Count of La Marche, whose intended wife, Isabel of 
Angouleme, John had carried off and married himself. Hugh, 
burning for revenge, found means to interest Philip in the matter, 
and the war broke out afresh. Arthur, with Hugh for his general, 
besieged his grandmother, Queen Eleanor, in the castle of Mira- 
beau" but John hastened to her assistance, defeated the assailants, 
and captured Arthur, his sister Eleanor, and Hugh. Their fate was 
a melancholy one. Hugh was kept a prisoner in chains for many 
years at Caen; Eleanor was confined for the rest of her life, a 


156 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book V. 

Death of Prince Arthur. France Now, and Then. English Dominions there. 

period of more than forty years; and Arthur, after being for some 
time shut up in the dungeon of a castle, where the king ordered 
him to be murdered, was saved by the pity of the keeper. He 
was then sent to Rouen, and was no more heard of. It being 
presumed that he had been put to death, John was summoned by 
the King of France to answer to the charge. As he did not reply, 
he was formally adjudged to have forfeited his French lands as a 
felon and a traitor. Normandy was overrun by the French king, 
the Bretons (the native subjects of Arthur) took up arms, and 
John, abandoning both provinces without a blow, fled to England. 

§ 4. At this point it seems proper to say that the France under 
the dominion of the French king, at the time we are considering, 
was a small territory as compared with France now, which has the 
English Channel and Belgium on the north; the Bay of Biscay on 
the west; the Pyrenees and Mediterranean Sea on the south; and 
Switzerland and Germany on the east. 

§ 5. Fora long time, as we have seen, the influence of the Anglo- 
Normans in France was powerful. ' Many of the provinces were 
almost continually under the control of the King of England. 
Henry the Second, at one time, possessed a much larger part of 
France than the French king himself. All the west of France was 
held by the English, excepting Brittany; and even there their in¬ 
fluence was very great. The Duke of Brittany in the west, the 
Earl of Flanders in the north, the Duke of Burgundy and the 
Count of Dauphiny in the east, and the Count of Toulouse in the 
south, were all independent princes, and the kings of England 
frequently took part in their wars against the prince who, as pos¬ 
sessing the capital city, Paris, was styled King of France. But 
he did not'rule over one-sixth of the country now known by that 
name. We shall notice, as we proceed! in our narrative, how the 
English tried to hold dominion over France, and the wars that 
were the consequence. 

§ 6. The breaking up of the English dominion in France, just 
mentioned, occurred in the year 1204. It was two years before 
John could muster an army to attempt its recovery, and when he 
did so he was, after a short campaign in Poitou, glad to obtain 
peace by surrendering all the country north of the Loire, which 
comprised Normandy, Brittany, Anjou, and Maine, the provinces 
that had so long been the scene of fierce strife, and in which his 
warlike father and brother were buried. 


ir>7 


CnAPTER III.] THE PLANT AGENETS. 

John’s Tyranny. Contentions with his People. The Pope Interferes. 

§ 7. But a greater trouble than the loss of these provinces soon 
after came upon John. The Archbishop of Canterbury died, and 
the king and the monks each chose a successor, whom, as was 
then the practice, they offered to the Pope for his confirmation. 
Neither of these men appeared suited to the post, and at last, 
after a two years’ delay, the Pope gave the office to Stephen Lang- 
ton, a learned Englishman, who was then in France. John de¬ 
clared that he would never allow him to land in England, and as 
the monks were willing to accept him, he not only drove them out 
and seized their possessions, but laid a very heavy tax on all the 

rest of the clergy as their abettors. His brother, 

® a § 5, p. 145. 

Geoffrey, a was one of the first to remonstrate on this 

injustice, and not being heeded, he excommunicated the king’s 

advisers, when he was driven from his see and died in exile. 

§ 8. The Pope now took part in the quarrel, and laid the king¬ 
dom under an interdict, in consequence of which no public service 
was held in the churches, absolution for sins was granted only to 
persons at the point of death, and their bodies were laid in ditches 
and waste places without any funeral ceremony. Many bishops 
left the country, but the king only proceeded more tyrannically than 
before. He knew that he had entirely lost the good-will of his 
subjects; but he endeavored to secure himself by ordering them 
to take a fresh oath of allegiance. He also demanded bonds and 
hostages from his barons, which many were obliged to give him; 
but some began strengthening their castles, to prepare for war, 
and others fled to Scotland or Ireland. 

§ 9. Among these last was William de Braose, a nobleman of 
Sussex, whose wife, when ordered to give up her youngest boy to 
the king, replied that she would not trust her child to a man who 
was the murderer of his nephew. The taunt was terribly avenged. 
The plunder of the church had given the king vast sums of 
money, which he chiefly employed in hiring bands of fierce for¬ 
eign soldiers, and with them he made pitiless inroads in Scotland, 
Wales, and Ireland, for three years in succession. Wherever he 
w r ent he devastated the country, and he returned many times to 
England, bringing with him troops of miserable captives, many 
of whom were imprisoned at Windsor, or Corfe Castle, or other 
royal seats, and starved to death in dungeons whilst John and his 
associates rioted in the banquet-hall above. 

§ 10. Lady Braose and her family were among the number who 


158 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book V 

John excommunicated by the Pope. His Tyranny. Operations in Wales. 

suffered, but her husband escaped to France, where he died of 
grief soon afterward. Some of the fugitives took to piracy, but 
they were hunted down by a fleet of galleys furnished by the Cinque 
Ports, 1 with whose inhabitants John was a favorite, as he scrupu¬ 
lously regarded their privileges, and passed a portion of every year 
among them, when he associated freely with their mariners. In 
return, they, under their warden, William of Wrotham, firmly sup¬ 
ported him under all circumstances. 

§11. After the interdict had been in force for nearly two years, 
the Pope, finding John still unmoved, excommunicated him; but 
this produced no effect beyond rendering the royal exactions from 
the clergy more heavy than before. As soon as it became difficult 
to gain enough from the church, another supply was found in 
plundering the Jews, who were imprisoned and most mercilessly 
tortured until they gave up their wealth.® They had 

^ 3 ’ P " hitherto been less oppressed in England than on the 
Continent; but now that the-jcase was so entirely altered they began 
to leave the country. 

§ 12. There was still another measure that the Pope could take, 
which was absolving John’s subjects from their oaths of allegiance; 
but before resorting to this extreme measure he sent Cardinal Pan- 
dulph as his legate, to endeavor to bring about a peace between 
the king and his various opponents. This also failed, and the 
people were accordingly absolved in 1212, which was the fifth 
year of the quarrel. John disregarded this also, and set about a 
fresh expedition against Wales, when he suddenly found out the real 
danger of his position. His troops, as usual, were mainly merce¬ 
naries; but with them were Robert Fitz-Walter and some other 
barons, who resolved to avail themselves of the papal absolution 
and to betray him into the hands of the enemy. He had already 
hung some thirty young Welsh hostages, boys and girls, and was 
arranging the plan of his campaign, when a messenger from his 
daughter Joan (who was the wife of the Welsh Prince) informed 
him of the plot. Fitz-Walter and the rest at once fled to France, 
when John seized their estates and hired more mercenaries with 
the money. 

i These five ports, nearest to France, were Dover, Hastings, Hythe, Romney, and 
Sandwich. Their jurisdiction was vested in barons, called wardens, for the better 
security of the English coast from invaders from France. They were established by 
William the Conqueror, and were considered the keys of the kingdom of England. 
They are yet under a Lord Warden. 


Chapter III.] THE PLANTAGENETS. 

Invasion of England prevented. The King’s S 


159 


The King’s Submission to the Pope. 


§ 13. Philip, the French king, now prepared to invade England 
in the‘interest of his son Louis, who had married John’s niece, 
Blanche of Castile, and who had been invited by some of the 
barons to come over and be their sovereign. But John and his 
men of the Cinque Ports were quite ready to meet him. His 
brother, the Earl of Salisbury, put himself at the head of their fleet, 
ravaged the Norman coast, and brought home many prizes. The 
King of France then invaded Flanders, which was in alliance with 
John, and captured Bruges; but Salisbury sailed again in quest of 
the French fleet, which he found in the harbor of Damme [a.d. 

1213], captured 300 sail, and burnt 100 more. Thus the threatened 
invasion of England was postponed for three years, and time was 
gained for John to make his peace with the Pope, which he at 
last thought it wise to do. 

§ 14. In about a month after the great victory at Damme, Car¬ 
dinal Pandulph again went to England, when John was formally 
reconciled, and did homage for his dominions [May 15, a.d. 1213], 
for which he also engaged to pay an annual tribute to the See of 
Rome. In this transaction the power of the Pope was manifested. 
At an early hour the superstitious monarch repaired to the church 
of the Templars, at Dover, and there, surrounded by the dignita¬ 
ries of Church and State, he fell upon his knees before Pan¬ 
dulph, the pontiff’s representative, took an oath of fealty to the 
Pope, placed in the legate’s hands a wilting, in which he surren- 


dered to Innocent, the reigning Bishop of Rome, for himself and 
successors, for ever, the kingdom of England and the lordship of 
Ireland; a and agreed to pay an annual tribute of a § ^ p 141 
seven hundred marks of silver for the former, and 
three hundred marks for the latter. He then offered Pandulph 
some money in token of his sincerity, when the haughty cardinal 
trampled it under his feet, to signify that the Holy Father had no 
desire for filthy lucre. And so it was that England and Ireland 
* mrt of that immense “patrimony of St. Peter, which 



160 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book V. 

Eights demanded. The King and Barons. Magna Charta and its Powers. 

interfere with “the pious penitent of England and beloved son of 
the church.” But John found his barons, in general, in‘league 
with Philip, and therefore he had to trust to his mercenaries alone. 
With these he landed in Poitou, and gained some successes; but 
about the same time his brother, the Earl of Salisbury, was cap¬ 
tured in Flanders, and John returned to England. 

§ 16. The Archbishop of Canterbury was that Stephen Langton 
who had been appointed by the Pope in 1207, a and 

§ 7, p. io<. geven y earg i banishment induced him to join with 
the barons in demanding a redress of the many grievances they all 
had sustained at the Icing’s hands. These demands were presented 
to John in the beginning of the year 1215, but it was not until the 
middle of June that he could be induced to concede them. The 
king tried to divide the confederates by granting the demands of the 
churchmen, and assuming the cross, as if he intended to go to the 
Holy Land, and the Pope, now become his protector, ordered the 
barons to desist from their < demands. Instead of this, they took 
possession of London. At length the king met them at Runnymead, 
near Windsor, when he unreservedly agreed to all that they asked, 
intending all along to keep faith with them no longer than he was 
obliged to do so. That agreement formed the basis of the cele¬ 
brated Magna Charta, or fundamental constitution of England, 
which guarantees rights and privileges. 

§ 17. The barons perfectly well knew that the base monarch in¬ 
tended to violate his word, so, beside imposing an oath on him 
not to appeal to the Pope to set the charter aside, they appointed 
twenty-four of their number to enforce its observance, and took 
and held possession of the Tower and the city of London. This 
charter promised peace and freedom of election to the church ; a 
legal course of government, in which right and justice should not 
be sold, denied, or delayed; the trial of every man openly by his 
peers; moderation in punishments; just weights and measures, 
and protection to merchants. These things' are of interest for all 
time, and that charter, so extorted from a vile king, is the solid 
base of all the liberties of Great Britain and our Republic at the 
present day. It also provided for the redress of more temporary 
grievances, as the restoration of the barons’ bonds and hostages, 
and the dismissal of the foreign mercenaries; but with this last 
stipulation the king did not even pretend to comply. On the 
contrary, he sent abroad to hire more, and when charged with the 


Chapter III.] THE PLANTAGENETS. 161 

Perfidy of John upheld by the Pope. Civil War. French Invasion. 

fact by the keepers of the charter, he cried, “ Why do you not ask 
for my kingdom ? ” 

§ 18. In about two months after the grant of the charter, John 
withdrew himself into Kent, where his new troops were beginning 
to arrive on board the Cinque Ports’ a ships, with Fulk a § 1Q p 157 
de Breaute, a man of particularly desperate character, 
for their leader. The king now formally applied to the Pope to 
be absolved from his oath, began ravaging the barons’ estates, and 
after a two months’ siege, in the autumn of 1215, he took the 
strong castle of Rochester. 

§ 19. Just as this fortress fell, a communication came from the 
Pope, which annulled the charter, suspended the archbishop, and 
excommunicated the barons. Rendered desperate by this, some of 
the barons surrendered Northumberland to the King of Scots. 
John marched towards them in the depth of .winter, and ravaged 
the country, and in his absence the barons near London plundered 
the surrounding districts. The king now marched southward. 
De Breaute sacked the churches, and the barons, when he had 
reached Enfield, shut themselves up in London and despatched 
messengers and hostages to offer the crown to the King of France, 
who, exasperated by the perfidy and avarice of the Pope, did not 
heed the thunder of the curses of “ his holiness,” which rolled 
over Philip’s head. When John drew near, the Londoners threw 
their gates open, challenging him to venture in; but he turned 
aside into Kent, where he remained until he learned that Louis, the 
French King’s son, was about to embark for England. Then, as 
many of his mercenaries were Frenchmen, he became distrustful of 
them, and marched first along the coast to Corfe Castle, then into 
Shropshire, and afterwards across'the country to Lincoln. 

§ 20. The Pope’s legate b had forbidden Philip to accept the crown 
of England offered by the barons, but the prohibition b § ^ p m 
was disregarded, and as the prince was fortunate 
enough to escape the Cinque Ports fleet, he landed at Sandwich, cap¬ 
tured Rochester, was received into London, and began the siege of 
Dover Castle, all in the course of a month, in the early summer of 
1216. But he soon found that “the lock and key of England,” as 
Dover Castle was then commonly termed, was too strong for him ; 
he therefore left it behind him, and marched to Winchester, which 
was surrendered to him, but in an attack on Windsor Castle he 
was repulsed. This ill success, added to his policy of giving 


162 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 


[Book V. 


The French defeated. Death of John. His Person and Character. 

every castle that was taken into the hands of his Frenchmen, dis¬ 
gusted many of the English barons, and they went over to the 
side of John, who was then at Lincoln. Thus strengthened, the 
king marched to Lynn, where he was most cordially received by 
the seafaring people, and gave to the town its name of King’s Lynn, 
which it still bears. After resting here a few days he crossed an 
inlet of the sea, called Cross Key Wash, on his return to Lincoln, 
but the rising tide carried away much of his baggage and his 
treasure. Vexation at this loss, some say, brought on a fever; 
while others declare that he was made ill by eating gluttonously 
of fruit. Others say he was poisoned by one of his attendants. 
His illness obliged him to halt at Swineshead Abbey. When some¬ 
what recovered he started on horseback for Sleaford, but speedily 
growing worse, his attendants put him in a litter and carried him 
to the Castle of Newark, on the Trent, where he died on the 19th 
of October, 1216, three days after his arrival. By his own desire, 
his body was buried in Worcester Cathedral, although he had 
several years before founded the Abbey of Beaulieu, in the New 
Forest, avowedly for his last resting-place. 

§ 21. John was a man of small stature and severe aspect. His 
licentious life, and his treachery and cruelty, made him very 
odious to the great body of his subjects ; but many notable men 
adhered to him in spite of all the censures of the church, Among 
them were the Earls of Salisbury and Pembroke, the Bishop of 
Winchester, and Hubert de Burgh, the justiciary. These men, 
then the most powerful in the realm, also became the great sup¬ 
porters of John’s young successor. 


CHAPTER IV. 

SOCIETY DURING THE NORMAN AND EARLY PlANTAGENET PERIOD. 

§ 1. From the time of the conquest of England by William of 
Normandy, in the year 1066, to the close of the reign of King John, 
in 1216, a period of one hundred and fifty years, the social and 
political structure of modem England was in a crude formative 
state. It was a period when the power of the Roman hierarchy 
was at its height, both temporal and spiritual, and the Bishop of 



Chapter IV.] THE PLANTAGENETS. 163 

Christianity in England. Its Ministers. Government and Laws. 

Rome was the grand arbiter in the affairs of men and nations, and 
irresponsible to any human authority. How that mighty autocracy, 
which was felt in every fibre of social life in Europe, was exercised, 
our brief narrative of events in England and elsewhere reveals. 

§ 2. Christianity, as then recognized in the public worship of 
God, was a system of ceremonies; and superstition ruled men 
through their fears, rather than religion through their love. Greed 
was everywhere visible among the ecclesiastics, and they Were the 
most potent instruments of oppression. The strife for earthly pos¬ 
sessions in connection with monasteries, churches, and cathedrals, 
appears to have been far more zealous than struggles for the trea¬ 
sures which “neither moth nor rust doth corrupt.” The quarrels, 
and often bloody contentions, among the higher clergy aspiring 
for honors and emoluments, and their utter worldliness of thought 
and action evinced in their lives as corn-tiers, politicians, and war¬ 
riors, make unseemly pictures in the records of religion in those 
times. Indeed, to the apprehension of impartial minds in our day, 
of whatever creed, the professed ministers of the Gospel in Eng¬ 
land then, as a body, were hinderers rather than helpers of the 
people struggling up from the darkness and slavery of paganism 
into the light and freedom of the pure religion of Jesus of Naza¬ 
reth. 

§ 3. It was so also with government and laws. The a § 6 p ^ 
feudal system,® introduced by the Normans, was an 
awful oppressor of the people, crushing them to earth under the 
weight of serfdom and absolute slavery, which forbade improve¬ 
ment and elevation. It seemed as if government and law had 
combined to enrich and aggrandize the few at the expense of the 
many. Class was absolute in segregations and antagonisms. The 
feudal lords themselves suffered by a system created for their 
special benefit, for they were isolated, demoralized, and made 
cruel. Each castle and its landed appendage was an empire 
liable to be seized by whomsoever might covet it. The sword was 
continually out of the scabbard, and no man’s life and ^ ^ p 02 
property, from the king to the mllani , b was free from 
jeopardy one hour. Desolations were common; and thousands 
perished annually by want or violence. On so feeble a tenure was 
all property held, that society, above the laborers, presented a band 
of marauders, suspicious of each other and of the monarch, and 
each watching for an opportunity for despoiling his neighbor. 


164 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book Y. 

Guarantees of Magna Charta. Royal Possessions and Revenue. 

§ 4. It was this state of tilings which caused some of the better 
sort of barons to wring from King John, at Runny- 
a § 16, p ' 160- mead, a the Magna Charta which defined (1) the rights 
of the clergy; (2) the rights of the barons or fief-holders; and 
(3) the rights of the people at large. It guaranteed to the latter 
(1) that the court of common pleas, or common resort for justice, 
should not follow the king’s court, but should be held in a cer¬ 
tain fixed place in each county. Before that time suitors for jus¬ 
tice, through law, were compelled to follow the king from Eng¬ 
land to France, and from France to England, often to their utter 
impoverishment, as we have already remarked. 

§ 5. It guaranteed (2) that justice should not be sold, refused, or 
delayed; (3) that two judges should be sent four times a year into 
each county, who, with four knights chosen by each county, 
should hold an assize at an appointed place; (4) that no freeman 
should be arrested or anywise be maltreated in person or property 
unless by the legal judgment of his peers, or by the law of the 
land; (5) that no freeman, or merchant, or villein 
§ 26, p. 9~. ( v pj an -)b should be unreasonably fined for a small 
offence; nor the first be deprived of his tenement, the second of 
his goods, nor the third of his husbandry. This last was the only 
clause which related to the villani, who were then the most nume¬ 
rous class of the people. The king was made to promise several 
other benefits for the people; and so it was that the movement to¬ 
ward a better state of government was commenced, with a result 
which proves the truth of the couplet, that 

“Freedom's battle, once begun, 

Though baffled oft, is ever won.” 

§ 6. The legitimate income of the monarch was derived from 
what were called “crown lands,” and various taxations. It 
appears from the record of a general survey of all the lands of the 
kingdom, made by direction of the Conqueror, in two 
§ 28, p. 103 . vo ^ umeg known as the “Domesday Book,” c that the 
crown acquired the entire property of more than fourteen hundred 
manors, the rents of which must have been large. In addition to 
these, the king possessed sixty-eight royal forests, thirteen chases, 
and seven hundred and eighty-one parks or hunting grounds, in 
different parts of his dominions. He also had annual dues from 
his knighted vassals; and he often doubled the amount of his 
lawful income by exactions and violent seizures of property. 


Chapter IY.] THE PLANTAGENETS. 165 

Sources of the Royal Income. National Industry. Extension of Commerce. 

Besides, every tenant of the crown was obliged to furnish the king 
one armed soldier, when called for, and to maintain him in the 
field. The crown also drew large profits from wardship and mar¬ 
riage, it having the disposition of all heiresses, and also of all 
■widows of its tenants, in marriage; and the transaction was always 
accompanied by a fee to the sovereign. It also received the profits 
of the estates of all idiots; also personal effects unclaimed, stolen 
goods cast away by thieves, estrays, treasure found buried, wrecked 
goods long unclaimed, sturgeon and whales cast on the shore, and 
scores of other kinds of property. The crown was made a reser¬ 
voir into which every conceivable stream of wealth gathered for 
the gratification of the lust of the wearer. 

§ 7. The condition of society in England after the conquest was 
unfavorable to individual enterprise ; and the growth of national 
industry, so promising toward the close of the Saxon era, was 
checked, with the exception of commerce which the foreign con¬ 
nections of the monarch fostered. The Conqueror’s seven hundred 
ships-of-war, and numerous smaller vessels, with which he ap¬ 
proached the English coast/ made a respectable a ^ ^ 

navy ; and many of these were used for purposes of 
traffic. The maritime power of England was extended, while its 
productive industries were diminished. 

§ 8. Some new branches of industry were introduced from the 
East by the returning crusaders and by the Flemish refugees; b 
but little advancement was made in the useful arts k . 

b § 21, p. 126 . 

until the reign of Henry the Second [1154 to 1189], 

when manufactures and commerce attained a prosperity unknown 

since the Conquest. 

§ 9. The subjection of Ireland to English rule greatly extended 
trade; and Dublin, in a degree, rivalled London as a mart of 
traffic. The latter, with a population of about fifty thousand in 
the reign of John, was the principal seat of trade within the 
British realm. In return for the products of England which it 
exported, such as wool, flesh, cattle and horses, hides and skins, 
oysters, herring, iron, lead, tin and copper, it received silver coin 
from Germany ; gold, spices, and frankincense from Arabia ; pre¬ 
cious stones from Egypt; purple cloth from India ; palm-oil from 
Bagdad; furs and ermine from Norway and Russia; arms from 
Scythia ; silks from Sicily; and wines from France. Down to the 
close of the period we have been considering, the Flemings were 


166 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book Y. 

Agriculture and Arts. Ignorance of the Clergy. 

the chief foreign traders who resorted to England, where they 
obtained a large portion of the wool for making cloth. The 
only coinage in England during that period was a silver penny, 
then, as now, the twelfth part orf a shilling, which is the twentieth 
part of a pound, the latter being an actual pound, or 5,400 grains, 
of silver. 

§ 10. Agriculture felt the depressing influence of the turbulence 
of the times ; yet it was, as in the Saxon era, the chief productive 
industry of the nation. The population to be fed did not exceed 
two millions, and yet so imperfect and limited was the tillage that 
an unfavorable season caused much distress. The agriculture of 
the same England now sustains, on an average, sixteen millions. 
There were some improvements over the Saxons in implements of 
husbandry. The plough was more efficient, and the sickle and 
flail were of precisely the same form and construction as those 
now in use. Hand-mills were used in almost every family, and 
water-mills, belonging to the owners of manors, everywhere 
abounded. 

§ 11. The architecture of this period, especially in the art of 
sacred and palatial structures, made rapid progress toward a higher 
and purer style; but the chief business of the builder was the 
rearing of heavy-walled castles. The textile arts were somewhat 
improved under the culture of the Flemish weavers. 

§ 12. Toward the close of this period guilds were formed. In 
1180, the saddlers were an incorporated body, while goldsmiths and 
other artisans had formed independent associations. Embroidery 
was the chief occupation of the women of rank and wealth, who 
were much employed in so ornamenting the vestments of the higher 
orders of the clergy. The Abbess of Markgate embroidered three 
mitres and a pair of sandals, which she sent to Pope Adrian. Gold 
and silver workers were eminently expert. A pair of candlesticks, 
sent to the same Pope by the Abbot of St. Alban’s, wrought of 
gold and silver, were admired as superior to anything the Roman 
Pontiff had ever seen. 

§ 13. The common clergy of England were notoriously illiterate 
at the time of the Conquest. A great number of them could 
hardly read the church service. The barons, and all below them, 
even of the Norman stamp, were profoundly so. In this fact may 
be found the secret of the power of superstition, which the more 
enlightened priesthood used for securing and perpetuating the 


THE PLANTAGENETS. 


167 


Chapter IV.] 

Libraries, Schools, and Universities. Historians. Churches. 

absolute dominion of the church. The Conquest making Eng¬ 
land a part of Continental Europe, where the revival of learning 
begun by Charlemagne was progressing, gave a new impulse to 
knowledge in the island. The Crusades and the Irish con¬ 
nection furnished additional intellectual wealth. Arabic litera¬ 
ture found its way into monasteries; and the sciences of the 
East had many devotees therein. 

§ 14. The Conqueror loved and patronized learning and the fine 
arts; and with him dawned a new intellectual era in England. 
Libraries were formed ; schools were established; the Universities 
of Oxford and Cambridge flourished, and learning began to be 
diffused among the minor clergy, who, according to the notion of 
the, age were the only legitimate possessors of it. Schools were 
connected with all religious houses, of which more than five 
hundred were established between the Conquest and the death of 
King John. But these cathedral and conventual schools were 
for the instruction of those only who were preparing for the 
priesthood, and many youths went to the colleges of the continent 
for their education. There were, however, a few schools in cities 
and villages open to the children of all freemen. In the higher 
schools, such as at Oxford, and in seminaries in London and one 
or two other places, law., medicine, divinity, metaphysics, Greek, 
Latin, and mathematics were taught. 

§ 15. Historians were numerous during the age we are consider¬ 
ing, and its most precious literary remains are the many historical 
works which it has bequeathed to us. No other nation, probably, 
possesses so large a body of early cotemporary history as that 
formed by the writings of the English chroniclers of the eleventh 
and twelfth centuries. Among the more prominent names of 
historians are: William of Poictiers, the chaplain of the Conqueror ; 
Eadmer, the monk of Canterbury; William of Malmsbury; 
Simeon of Durham; and William of Newbridge. The annals 
of Roger de Hoveden, from 737, where Bede’s 9 Ecclesiastical 
History ends, is a most valuable production of that a g gg p ^ 
period. 

§ 16. The Normans, more than any other modem people, had a 
taste for magnificent buildings, and during this period England 
was beautified with them. “ You might see,” wrote an old chro¬ 
nicler, “ churches rise in every village, and monasteries in the towns 
and cities, built in a style unknown before.” Castle-building was 


168 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book V. 

Castle and House budding. Sculpture. Furniture. 

a necessity and a passion. Every one built a castle who was able, 
and eighty years after the conquest, they numbered more than 
eleven hundred. The cathedrals, churches, abbeys, monasteries, 
palaces, and castles, were all marked with much taste in then* 
style and finish. Some of the ecclesiastical buildings were rich 
and magnificent. The remains of many that have survived the 
ravages of men and time, now, in their desolation, excite our 
wonder and admiration. The style of architecture in all was 
generally the Romanesque—a combination of the Greek column 
with the Etruscan arch. The florid and airy Gothic was not yet 
developed. 

§ 17. Domestic architecture in that age was very simple. 
Country dwellings of the best sort, such as manor-houses, were 
built of timber and inlaying plaster, and were usually in the form 
of a parallelogram, with a gable at each end. The lower story 
was vaulted, and not connected with the apartments above, which 
contained two rooms, in only one of which was a chimney. 
These upper chambers were reached by a movable stair outside of 
the building. In the roof was a loft that was reached by a ladder. 
As in the Saxon era, the dwellings of the laborers were thatched 
hovels, little better than the comfortable pigsty of our day. 

§ 18. Sculpture was but little practised in this period, and 
chiefly for monumental purposes. Its efforts seldom extended 
beyond relief figures and ornaments on stone coffins. Painting was 
in an equally low state, and seems to have been confined to an alli¬ 
ance with gilding in the decoration of the ceilings of ecclesiastical 
buildings. The illumination of manuscripts was skilfully done, 
but with a profusion of ornament indicative of uncultivated taste. 
Music was mostly cultivated for use in public worship. The inven¬ 
tion of an improved scale of musical notation by Guido de Arezzo, 
and the introduction of a correct method of marking time, had 
not yet invested the music of England with the dignity of a science, 
and the organ yet pealed out its monotones in the cathedrals and 
churches. Secular music among the English was very grave; 
among the Scotch, Welsh, and Irish it was more lively and varied, 
accompanied by the harp, pibcom, and bagpipe. 

§ 19. In household furniture and table customs the Normans 
seemed to have varied very little from their Saxon predecessors, 
excepting indelicacy of choice and better cookery, the latter having, 
before the Conquest, learned much of Norman customs and cos- 


Chapter IV.] THE PLANTAGENETS. 169 

Costume. Mode of Living. Contents of me Table. 

tume. In the latter the Normans introduced a richer and more 
extravagant style, and the fop, unknown in the earlier period, 
appeared. Some of the fashions became very ridiculous : for ex¬ 
ample, the sharp-pointed boot or shoe, which sometimes terminated 
like the tail of a scorpion and at others was curled up like a ram's 
horn. The sleeves of the tunic, of both sexes, were sometimes 
made so long that they were knotted up to prevent their trailing 
on the ground. The stuffs were more costly than formerly ; and 
the mantles of the rich were often lined with expensive furs. The 
men wore both hair and beard long; and fops, whose ringlets 
were not sufficiently profuse, added purchased hair, and appeared 
very effeminate. These follies were condemned from the pulpit, 
and sometimes razors and scissors were produced at the end 
of a sermon against the sinfulness of long locks and curling 
mustaches. 

§ 20. The dress of the women was often preposterous, until 
Henry the Second’s time, when it assumed a severe simplicity that 
gave a conventual appearance to the ladies. In a satirical picture 
of an earlier date, both sleeves and skirts are knotted up. Their 
garments were embroidered with indented edges; and they worn 
then- hair in long braided pendents, sometimes encased in a sort 
of silken tube, and at others tied with ribbons like a Chinaman’s 
pigtail. In Henry the Second’s time the dresses, though plain, 
were more costly. He introduced the short cloak of Anjou for 
men, and was in consequence surnamed Court-Manteau. The 
hair of both sexes was curled with crisping-irons, and the beaux 
went bareheaded so as to show the beauty of then* hair. 

§ 21. At that period the magnificent palaces were carpeted 
•with nothing better than straw and rushes; and the best beds 
were merely rugs laid upon the floor or broad benches. Forks 
were unknown, the fingers performing their service. Several Eng¬ 
lish estates were held upon the condition of supplying fresh straw 
for the royal beds, and litter of rushes for the apartments of the 
palace. The splendid hospitality of Earl Fitz-Stephen was marked 
by the fact that his dining-room was supplied with fresh straw 
every morning, so that his guests who might not be furnished 
with a bench, might sit upon the floor without soiling their fine 
clothes. The office of “ rush-strewer ” was continued until the 
close of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, at which time Turkey car¬ 
pets were used more for dovering tables than floors. 

8 


170 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 


[Book V. 


Time of Meals. 


Sports. 


Condition of th<? People. 


S 22 The Normans were more delicate in their habits than the 
A no-lo Saxons at table and elsewhere, but their entertainments were 
trtore coX Rich spices were plentifully used. The most 
esteemed dainties were the peacock and crane. A boar s head was 
a royal dish. But these viands were only for stated occasions, 
general the Normans were abstemious. They were contented wi 
brown bread made of rye, oats, or barley flour The drinks 'of the 
opulent were spiced wines and several kinds of fermented liquor . 
The poor were satisfied with cider, ale, and perry, or the juice of 
fte pear. Their habits were generally regular. A proverb in 
verse gives us the number of their meals in a day, and the time 

partaking of them, thus: 

“ To rise at five, to dine at nine ; 

To sup at five, and bed at nine, 

Makes a man live to ninety-nine.” 

S 23. Hunting, hawking, gambling, and horse-racing were the 
common sports of the king, nobles, and ecclesiastics. But the 
tournament or sham fight of full-armed knights was the great 
pastime at courts and castles in the Middle Ages. was 1 
tated in England, with modifications, by the common people 
and children, who, in winter, would skate upon ice on sheep¬ 
shanks tied to their feet, and tilt against each other with long 
staves. They also amused themselves with archery, throwing large 
stones, darting spears, wrestling, running, leaping, and sometimes 
boar-hunting, and bull and horse baiting. Cock-fighting was con¬ 
fined to children. On Tuesday of Shrovetide, each school-boy 

was allowed to bring a fighting-cock to the school. 

S 24. Jugglers entertained all classes. The buffoon, with his 
coarse jests, and the mime, with his antics at rude feats, were 
favorites. Coarse dramatic entertainments, gross like the morals 
of the age, drew crowds of delighted spectators; and various 
o-ames of chance or expertness made up the sum of the diversions 

of the people. . , 

§ 25. They had a hard life at the best. Injustice and cruelty 

bore awful sway in England at that time. An old chronicler sums 
up their condition in the few words“ God knows how unjustly 
this miserable people is dealt with. First they are deprived of 
their property, and then they are put to death. If a man possesses 
anything, it is taken from him; if he has nothing, he is left to 
perish by famine.” 


Chapter V.] THE PLANTAGENETS. 171 

Accession of Henry the Third. The Government. Expulsion of Prince Louis. 


CHAPTER Y. 

reign of Henry the Third, [a.d. 1216 to 1272.] 

§ 1. Whilst King John lay on his death-bed, messengers ar¬ 
rived offering the submission of many of his barons, who were 
growing every day more distrustful of young Louis of France. 
The king was too near his end to give audience to them, but his 
faithful adherents were greatly encouraged by their arrival, and 
all took an oath to receive his eldest son, Henry, as their king. 
The youth, known as Henry of Winchester, from the place of his 
birth, on the 1st of October, 1207, was then only in his tenth 
year; but he had able guardians in Gualo, the papal legate, and 
William, Earl of Pembroke, then Marshal of England. The 
latter marched with the royal army and Prince Henry to the city 
of Gloucester, where, a few days after his father’s death, the youth 
was crowned [October 28th, 1216] as Henry the Third. A great 
council was held at Bristol on the 11th of November following, 
where the Earl of Pembroke was chosen Protector, with the title 
of Rector Regis et Regni. At that council Magna Charta* was 
revised and published in a form which made it more 

0 § 16, p. 160. 

dear to the people. 

§ 2. The effect of these measures was soon seen in tli£ crowds 
that flocked to the royal standard. Prince Louis’ party was de¬ 
feated at Lincoln, where Robert Fitz-Walter and many of his 
chief English adherents were taken. His fleet, bringing succors 
from France, was destroyed in the straits of Dover by Hubert de 
Burgh, the warden of the castle, and the prince himself was at 
last besieged in London. The legate had already excommuni¬ 
cated him, and he was soon obliged to agree to leave the country 
[1221], when the London citizens lent him a sum of money for 
the expenses of his journey. Though Louis had stipulated that his 
adherents should go unpunished, the leaders did not think it wise 
to trust to this; therefore Fitz-Walter and many of the other 
barons went to Egypt on a crusade, to avoid punishment, where 
most of them died not long afterwards. But a French party re¬ 
mained, particularly in London, who, on every occasion of a 
tumult, raised Louis’ war-cry of “Montjoie,” and thus kept alive 
a feeling of distrust between the citizens and the king. 


172 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book Y. 

The Government. ■ Civil War. Insolence of Foreigners. 

s 3 . Before peace could be properly re-established, the papal 
legate a was withdrawn, and the Earl of Pembroke 
a § 1 , p. 171. ^ e( j q] ie government of the kingdom rested for 
the next dozen years in the hands of Hubert de Burgh and the 
Bishop of Winchester . 15 These men, though rivals 
b § 21 , p. 162 . . u everytlling ^ concurred in restraining the vio- 
c § 18, p. 162 . lence of Fulk de Breaute c and other mercenary 
.leaders, who were with difficulty made to give up the castles and 
lands that they had seized, and who tried to create a new war for 
the sake of plunder. At length the bishop, Peter des Roches, 
who had been a soldier before he became a priest, was driven into 
exile and De Burgh ruled alone. After a lapse of five years Des 
Roches came back, regained the king’s favor, and induced him to 
commit the keeping of the royal castles to his countrymen, the 
Poitevins. De Burgh resisted this, and was imprisoned. He 
escaped, joined Walter the Earl Marshal, the marchers, and other 
nobles, and, after a two years’ war, drove out the bishop and his 
adherents in the year 1234. The king professed to pardon De 
Burgh, but soon after stripped him of many of his possessions, on 
the charge of attempting to marry his daughter Margaret to the 
Earl of Gloucester without obtaining the royal consent. . 

§ 4. Shortly after the quarrel about the Poitevins, just men¬ 
tioned, the king married Eleanor, the daughter of the Count 
of Province, and, unwarned by what bad occurred, he at once 
sent for several of his wife’s relatives, on whom he bestowed 
titles and offices and rich possessions, to the disgust of his people, 
which was increased by the haughty conduct of these foreigners. 
Not content with the lavish gifts of their patron, they obtained the 
rich goods of the London merchants, and when asked for payment 
in the name of the law, scornfully cried, “ What are the laws of 
these English boors to us ? ” 

§ 5 . One of these men was Boniface of Savoy. He was the 
young queen’s uncle, and was made Archbishop of Canterbury, 
though, as a writer of the time says, “ he was destitute of learning, 
and altogether ignorant of the language and customs of his flock.” 
He was really little else than a fierce soldier, who passed the 
greater part of his time in foreign wars. The Pope, knowing his 
unfitness, long deferred his consecration, but at length yielded to 
the entreaties of the king, who, from his profuse liberality, was a 
favorite at Rome. When the soldier-prelate obtained possession 


THE PLANTAGENETS. 


173 


Chapter V.] 

A ferocious Archbishop. Influence of Court Favorites. 

of the see he gave great offence by his disorderly life, and by treat¬ 
ing every one with most overbearing roughness. Though the mon¬ 
asteries of London were not subject to him, he forced his way, at¬ 
tended by a guard, into St. Bartholomew’s, and when the prior 
mildly declined his jurisdiction, the fiery archbishop struck him 
in the face, tore his cope, threw him on the ground, and trampled 
on him. The monks tried to rescue their prior, and in the struggle 
the archbishop, also, was thrown down, when it was seen that he 
wore armor under his robes. His guards then fell on the monks, 
and nearly killed several of them. Others then rang the alarm 
bell, when the citizens rushed in, and the aggressors had some dif¬ 
ficulty in escaping with their lives. Some of the monks went all 
bruised and bleeding to the palace to complain to the king, but he 
would not even see them, and so the outrage remained without re¬ 
dress, though by no means forgotten by the Londoners. 

§ 6 . In a few years a fresh band of favorites appeared at court 

[a.d. 1247], who did the king even more mischief than the former, 

as, beside obtaining vast gifts from him, they engaged him in a 

number of idle efforts to recover his French provinces, on which he 

laid out more money than would have bought them all, had they 

been for sale. These were the children of his mother by her second 

husband, Hugh le Brun, a to whom she had been en- 

’ ° _ a § 3, p. 155. 

gaged before her marriage to King John. Hugh was 

of a treacherous, designing character, and he entertained a deadly 
hatred to the King of France, whose subject he was. He found in 
Henry an instrument ready to his hand. As to his children, noth¬ 
ing that their half-brother could do for them seemed enough. 
He created one of them (William de Valence) Earl of Pembroke, 
besides giving him a rich wife. He made another (Aymer de 
Lusignan) Bishop of Winchester, going himself to the monks and 
compelling them to elect him; and their sister he provided for by 
obliging the young Earl of Surrey to many her against his will. 

§ 7. Hugh le Brun was continually inciting the king to invade 
France, and received from him vast sums of money under the pre¬ 
tence of keeping the partisans of England together. Every now 
and then persons sent by him arrived at the court, and made the 
simple king believe that they represented the Normans, the Bretons, 
or the Poitevins, who were anxious to be delivered from the French. 
But when the trial was made, no one joined the English forces, 
and they had difficulty enough in getting back to Gascony, a pro- 


174 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book V. 

Expeditions against the French. Extortions. A brutal Cardinal. 

vince that was preserved only by the courage and conduct of 
Richard, Earl of Cornwall, Henry’s younger brother, who was a 
skilful soldier. 1 Yet the king was foolish enough to embark again 
and again in the enterprise, and even to pass some years in the 
country himself, where he narrowly escaped being taken prisoner. 

The king’s mother, Isabel, 8 had a great share in in- 
a § 2 , p. lo5. ^ licin g to undertake these fruitless expeditions, 
and so much mischief did she do by her intrigues that the French 
people, by common accord, changed her name to Jezebel. At last 
her husband was conquered by the King of France, and obliged to 
accompany him to the Crusade, where, being purposely exposed to 
imminent danger, he was soon killed. Isabel then retired to a nun¬ 
nery, and Henry reluctantly gave up any further attempts to 
recover Normandy, Brittany, or Poitou. 

§ 8. But beside the enormous expenses of the king’s foreign 
favorites and foreign wars, there was another cause that served 
greatly to alienate his people from him. King John had agreed 
to pay a yearly tribute of 8,000 marks to the Pope; but the very 
idea of tribute was so repugnant to the feeling of the nation, that 
neither Pembroke nor De Burgh attempted to levy it. After the 
king had taken the government into his own hands, he determined 
to fulfil the obligation, though under another name, and at his re¬ 
quest the Pope sent a legate, Cardinal Otho, professedly to “ re¬ 
form the state of the church.” But it was seen, from the vast 
sums of money that he exacted under various pretences, that he 
was really engaged in levying the tribute with heavy interest. He 
paid a visit to the University of Oxford in the year 1288, but was 
obliged to flee for his life, as a quarrel arose between his servants 
and the scholars, in consequence of the brutality of his master 
cook, who threw boiling water in the face of a poor priest when 
asking for foo 1 “ in the name of God,” a request that it was then 
considered no Christian would refuse. The cook was killed in the 
tumult, and the legate laid an interdict on the University, but its 
only effect was to make the foreigners more hated than ever. 

§ 9. Though the proceedings of the legate were loudly com¬ 
plained of by both the clergy and the people, the king supported 

1 Richard afterwards became the most wealthy prince of his time, and thus induced 
some of the German princes to elect him King of the Romans. He was crowned at 
Aix-la-Chapelle, but never gained any real power, and when his funds were exhausted 
his supporters forsook him. 


Chapter Y.] THE PLANTAGENETS. 175 

A Royal Perjurer. The Pope’s avaricious Demands. 

him in everything, and unwisely showed his fears by strengthen¬ 
ing the fortifications of the Tower of London. These new walls 
soon after were thrown down by an earthquake, and when the 
citizens rejoiced at it the king laid a heavy fine on them, which 
“ they treasured up in their memories,” says their historian, “as 
contrary to their known customs and liberties.” But customs 
and liberties were things that the king cared nothing about when 
he had the strength to break through them, though always ready 
to take the most solemn oaths to observe them, if he could thereby 
gain a present supply of money. Thus he confirmed Magna 
Charta ft no less than ten times, saying, with his hand a § 16 p 16Q 
on his breast, “ So help me God, these things will I 
faithfully observe, as I am a man, a Christian, a knight, and a 
crowned and anointed king.” At length the legate departed, 
laden with gold, but made additionally odious by the folly of the 
king, who placed him in his own royal seat at the Christmas feast 
in the year 1240. 

§ 10. The Popes, having found how easy it was to draw large 
sums from the credulous king, never after ceased importuning, 
him, and, to meet their wishes, his exactions became greater than 
ever. Sometimes he applied to his parliament in person: at one 
time told them a moving tale of his having vowed a pilgrimage 
to the Holy Land, and at another, of Pope Alexander having 
offered him the kingdom of Sicily for his younger son. For 
each purpose a large grant of money was necessary. But the 
parliament could not trust to his word, and told him plainly to 
his face that these were mere pretences. Henry, however, was not 
ashamed to hear this, and continued to importune them, alleging 
that the Pope had threatened to excommunicate him if he did not 
attempt the conquest of the Sicilian kingdom. At last, when 
they were induced to grant a sum for the pilgrimage, they ordered 
that it should not be paid to the king himself, but be expended 
for him by some trusty nobles. However, by smooth speeches, he 
eventually got it into his hands, and wasted it all in Gascony. 
As a means of conciliating the parliament, he afterwards intro¬ 
duced the young prince, his son, dressed in the Sicilian costume, 
and thus, in the year 1257, he procured 52,000 marks. This not 
being sufficient, he sent one of Ms clerks, Simon Passelew, “ a 
lying and crafty man,” says one of the chroniclers,—to extort 
money from the various religious houses; but very little could he 


176 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 


[Book Y. 

Impending Rebellion. Cruel treatment of the Jews and the Londoners. 

obtain, and the Sicilian expedition was never attempted, the 
money being paid over to the Pope instead. 

§11. The king had now pursued his course of misgovernment 
for many years, and it was abundantly evident that it could no 
longer be borne. Though he had frequently put himself at'the 
head of an army, he had never shown even personal courage, 
which was quite unbearable in so warlike an age, and he had 
never gained a single battle, even against the half-armed Welsh. 
On the contrary, they, on more than one occasion, had put him 
disgracefully to flight. On the other hand, he had pushed his 
exactions upon his subjects to such an extreme that they only 
required a leader to rise in open rebellion against him. This 
leader now appeared in the person of Simon de Montfort, the 
king’s brother-in-law. 

§ 12. Here, though a subject of small political importance, 
Henry’s treatment of the Jews must be mentioned, for in his time 
they were more mercilessly plundered than even in the days of 
King John. a They were charged with every im. 

§ 11, p. 158. a g- na ^ e cr j me) from clipping the coin to crucify¬ 
ing Christian children, and were hanged by a hundred at a time. 
At last, wearied out, they humbly petitioned, in the year 1255, to 
be allowed to quit England, promising never to return ; but even 
this was considered too great a favor. Instead, they were handed 
over to Richard, Earl of Cornwall, “to torture and extract money 
from them,” which he felt so sure of doing, that he at once ad¬ 
vanced a large sum of gold to the king, and no doubt repaid 
himself with interest. The citizens of London had been treated 
almost as badly, excepting only as to their lives. Their mayor and 
aldermen had many times been sent for to the court, and thrown 
into dungeons, where they remained until they paid heavily for 
their release, and this whether they were accused of having cried 

b 2 171 11 Mont i oie ’” b or ^ a prisoner escape, or connived at 

’ P ‘ ' bakers selling bread of short weight. The clergy, 
too, were as dissatisfied as all the other classes, for the Bishop of 
Lincoln, the famous Robert Grosteste, showed to them that the 
Pope had intruded foreigners into their benefices, who drew from 
England a yearly revenue three times as great as that of the king. 

§13. In the year 1238, Simon de Montfort, youngest son of the 
cruel Count de Montfort, in France, came over to England and 
married Eleanor, the Countess Dowager of Pembroke, and sister of 


Chapter V.] THE PLANTAGENETS. 177 

Simon de Montfort. His Popularity. A Revolution. 

King Henry. lie had succeeded to the earldom of Leicester in 
right of his mother, Amicia. He was very popular with all classes 
in England, and incurred the jealousy of the weak king, who 
banished him from the court. He afterwards made him governor 
. of Gascony. He gallantly defended that province from both the 
French and the people of the country, who despised Henry. 

§ 14. The king having been reconciled to Montfort, the gallant 

knight returned to England. Seeing the evil consequences of the 

king's extravagant favor for his half-brothers/ he 

& b . a § 6, p. 173. 

quarrelled with the new Earl of Pembroke in the 
royal presence, and hastily quitting the court, sought at once for 
means to chive them from the country. That was in the year 1257. 
He had been greatly valued by the Bishop of Lincoln, then lately 
dead, who was said to have prophesied on his death-bed that De 
Montfort and his sons should be the champions and martyrs of the 
church and nation. He w T as therefore joined by multitudes, both 
peasant and peer ; and among the last was that Earl of Gloucester 
whose marriage with Margaret de Burgh had been hindered by the 
king, b and who, though this had happened many b g ^ ^ 
years before, was still anxious to revenge himself. 

The Welsh prince, Llewelyn, also joined De Montfort, whilst Mor¬ 
timer and his fellow-marchers took up arms -for the king. 

§ 15. Early in the next year [a.d. 1258] a parliament met at 
London, which positively refused to grant anything further for the 
Sicilian expedition. The king thought that this refusal was occa¬ 
sioned by the advice of the citizens, and therefore, after a while, 
removed the assembly to Oxford, where was then a royal palace; 
but there De Montfort and his friends came fully armed, and what 
was in reality a revolution was effected without bloodshed Rules 
were drawn up, called the Provisions of Oxford, which in fact, 
though not in name, deposed the king, and placed all power in 
the hands of De Montfort and a few associates. The king, and 
also Prince Edward, the heir to the throne, and now in the nine¬ 
teenth year of his age, swore to observe this new constitution; but 
Pembroke and his Poitevin friends refused, and fled to France. 

§ 1C. As had often occurred before, the king at once, by con¬ 
sent of a papal dispensation, disregarded his oath, and got money 
from the King of France to hire mercenary troops by formally 
resigning his claim to Normandy. Prince Edward did the same 
by borrowing from his rich uncle the Earl of Cornwall. Mean- 
8 * 


178 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 


[Book Y 


Contest between the King and People. ° lvU VVar ‘ 

while De Montfort offended his friends by a too open assumption 
of superiority, and in the course of a few months the king for¬ 
mally refused to abide by the Provisions, attempted to resume liis 
authority, and got possession of the Tower. So great was his need 
of support, that he even called on the hated Londoners to serve 
him for pay, but not one would join him. The unpopular queen 
was pelted with mud and stones by the populace as she passed 
under London bridge in a boat, amid the cries of “ Down with the 

witch ! drown her ! ” . 

§ 17. The king was in great peril, for the barons had pronounced 
him a tyrant, and so pleased the people. And on the approach of 
the barons, whom the king had denounced as rebels, the monarch 
was forced to flee to Dover. Unlike his father, however, he was 
not a favorite in the Cinque Ports, B and he had to 

§ 10, p. loT. re f U g e j n Prance. He soon returned, but 

though he had introduced French mercenaries into Windsor, 
Gloucester, Bridgnorth, and other strong fortresses, he could not 
prevent the expulsion of the Bishop of Hereford, who was one of 
the hated foreign favorites. All the royal castles were taken, and 
Henry was again obliged to swear to observe the Provisions of 
Oxford. That was in the year 1262. 

§ 18. After a time it was agreed at a great council held in Lon¬ 
don that all the questions between the king and his people should 
be referred to the decision of Louis, King of France. That wise 
and good monarch declared that the Provisions ought to be set 
aside as limiting too much the royal authority; but that their up¬ 
holders should be pardoned, and the people should preserve all 
their ancient liberties. This reasonable award pleased neither 
party, and the war broke out afresh, and was carried on for some 
time with varying fortune. 

§ 19. Prince Edward, who acted as his father’s general, seized 
Oxford and Northampton, devastated the country as far as Kent, 
and ravaged the Cinque Ports, whose inhabitants had been changed 
by heglect and extortion into warm partisans of De Montfort. 
Many of them took to their ships, and passing over to the Flemish 
coast, they prevented any assistance reaching the prince from 
abroad. On the other hand, the Londoners plundered the king’s 
palace, imprisoned his judges, and sent a strong body of their 
best men to assist De Montfort, who coming up with the king at 
Lewes, in Sussex [May 13,1264], totally defeated him, taking him, 


Chaptek V.] 


THE PLANTAGENETS. 


179 


An important Battle. Invasion threatened. 

his brother the Earl of Cornwall, and his son Prince Edward, 
prisoners. This was the first important battle ever fought in 
England between purely English parties. The battle would pro¬ 
bably have ended differently but for the conduct of Prince Ed¬ 
ward, for the king had many foreign cross-bow men and other vete¬ 
ran soldiers, while the barons’ army was mainly composed of men 
who then first took the field. Irritated by some affronts that his 
mother had lately received from the Londoners, the prince fell on 
those in the army with such fury that he totally routed them. He 
then pursued them so far that the rest of the royal army was 
defeated in his absence. The unfortunate citizens in their flight 
passed near the castle of Tunbridge, when the royal garrison 
sallied out, despoiled them, and slew so many that but a remnant 
reached London. 

§ 20. The immediate result of the battle was a treaty, by which 
the king was set at liberty as being incapable of doing anything 
without his son and brother Richard, a who were & § ? p m 
closely imprisoned in the Tower and at Dover. The 
queen then raised forces in Flanders for an invasion, and Simon 
de Montfort encamped on Barham Downs, in Kent, to resist it; 
but as the Cinque Ports fleet kept the sea, the mercenary army 
dared not leave the opposite shore, and soon melted away for want 
of pay. 

§ 21. After Prince Edward had been a prisoner nearly a year, 
he was released on taking an oath to observe the b § ^ p 
provisions of Oxford, b and was sent to reside at Here¬ 
ford in “ free custody,” as it was termed, or on parole. Shortly 
before this a very remarkable event occurred, which was the meet¬ 
ing of an assembly, the very counterpart of the present British 
Houses of Parliament. Though what were called # ^ p g7 
parliaments existed in earlier days,® they at first con¬ 
sisted only of nobles and bishops, who, as holding lands direct 
from the king, were summoned by him to give both money and 
counsel. But it was De Montfort’s evident interest to obtain these 
things from all classes of the community, and accordingly there 
met at his summons, on the 28th of January, 1265, beside twenty- 
three peers and eleven bishops, one hundred of the inferior clergy, 
two knights from each county, and two representatives from each 
city, cinque-port, and large town. The whole met together in one 
chamber, but it was long before what we now style the Commons 


180 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book V. 

Civil War renewed. Death of Montfort. Freph Extortions. 

were treated as the equals of the rest of the assembly. This was a 
great innovation in the direction of popular freedom; but when the 
king was restored to power he found it quite impossible to set it 
aside. From that day, therefore, dates the present constitution of 
the British government, of Monarch, Lords, and Commons. 

§ 22. Though the Earl of Gloucester had been one of the earliest 
adherents of De Montfort, quarrels frequently arose between them, 
and shortly after Prince Edward had been removed to Hereford, 
the Earl suddenly went over to the royal party. He joined Mor¬ 
timer and the other Marchers who had escaped from Lewies. Pem¬ 
broke opportunely landed in South Wales with a body of foreign 
cross-bowmen, and the w r ar was rekindled. Edward escaped by 
stratagem from his guards, and put himself at the head of the new 
army. De Montfort, carrying the helpless king with him, marched 
against him, but, strangely for so expeiienced a general, was sur¬ 
prised and utterly defeated at Evesham, on the 4th of August, 
1265. Montfort and one of his sons were killed, and their bodies 
were barbarously mutilated and denied Christian burial; but they 
were long regarded as martyrs, and miracles, it was asserted, were 
wrought by their remains. 

§ 23. In less than a month after this battle a parliament was 
assembled at Winchester, which decreed that the defeated barons 
and the Londoners should lie at the king’s mercy. This was car¬ 
ried out as to the citizens, but the barons held out, some in the 
island of Axliolme, and some in Kenilworth, w 7 hich had been De 
Montfort’s seat, until they obtained better terms. The king seized 
the mayor and aldermen, and gave them, as captives taken in w r ar, to 
Prince Edward, w ho made them pay very heavy ransoms. All the 
best houses in the city were seized and given to soldiers of the 
royal army. Part of the city walls were thrown dowm, and the 
materials used to strengthen the Tower; and before the city w r as 
admitted to the king’s peace—that is, considered as entitled to 
the benefit of the law 7 —it had to pay 20,000 marks (£36,000, or 
about $180,000). To avoid contributing to this fund, many of the 
inhabitants tied to other places and disclaimed their citizenship. 
The city charters w r ere not restored until five years afterward. 

§ 24. The rigor with which the Londoners w T ere treated only 
made the barons in Kenilworth more desperate, and after besieg¬ 
ing them in vain for six months, it w r as agreed that all except the 
De Montforts should be pardoned on the payment of ransoms of 


181 


Chapter V.] THE PLANTAGENETS. 

Montfort’s Party. Death of Henry. His Character. 

from six months’ to seven years’ rent of their estates. All the 
surviving De Montforts were to be banished, although their mother* 
was the king’s sister. a These terms were accepted by „ g 13 p r6 
most of the barons, but some refused them. These 
malcontents retired to the Isle of Ely, and were not subdued until 
two years after the battle of Evesham. Another parliament was 
held at Marlborough, in November, 1267, which granted better 
terms to the vanquished party, Llewelyn included, and the civil 
war was brought to an end, after a continuance of nine years, with 
some few intervals of an ill-observed truce. 

§ 25. In the year 1270, Prince Edward, with his cousin Henry, 
son of the King of Rome, b went to the Holy Land, b ^ ^ ^ 

taking with him his wife, and also the Earl of Glou¬ 
cester and several other lords and brave knights, from whom a 
renewal of the war was feared, as he was the deadly enemy of 
the Mortimers. From this time forward the reign of Henry was 
peaceful. Its most memorable event was the solemn removal, in 
the year 1269, of the bones of Edward the Confessor® to a rich 
golden shrine that the king had prepared for them in 0 g p ,- 8 
Westminster Abbey. 

§ 26. At last the feeble king died, on the 16tli of November, 
1272, in the fifty-seventh year of his reign, and the sixty-fifth of his 
age, and was buried in the abbey, which, as it now stands, is 
mainly of his building. This fact should be borne in mind, as 
accounting for some part of the money for which he was so cease¬ 
lessly craving that one of the monkish writers of his time describes 
him as “ the beggar king.” He seems, indeed, to have deserved 
the appellation from his abject spirit. It is related of him, that 
when he extorted money from the Jews, though he left the silver 
to be gathered by his officers, he received the gold in his own 
hand; and when his eldest son was bom, he wrung such heavy 
sums from those to whom he sent the news, that one of them 
remarked, “ God gave this child, but the king sells him.” The 
whole course of his reign exhibits him as weak, cowardly, and in¬ 
sincere ; and not one kind or generous act is ascribed to him.by any 
historian. 

§ 27. Henry’s brother, Richard, the King of the Romans, d who 
for fifteen years had deluded himself with dreams of d ^ ^ p 
possessing the imperial crown of Germany, had died 
the year before the demise of Henry, while rejoicing in the pos- 


182 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book Y. 

Accession of Edward the First. He goes on a Crusade, 

session of a young German bride; and there was no one to dispute 
the accession of Edward, the Icing’s son. 


CHAPTER VI. 

reign of Edward the First, [a.d. 1272 to 1307.] 

§ 1. From Westminster Abbey the barons who had attended 
the funeral of Henry the Third went to the New Temple and 
proclaimed the absent Edward by the style of “ King of England, 
Lord of Ireland, and Duke of Aquitaine.” This was on Sunday, 
the 20th of November, 1272. 1 He was then thirty-three years of 
age. Though he was far away, his accession to the throne was 
more tranquil than that of any monarch since the Conquest. The 
government was arranged for him before his arrival, and he had 
only to enter peacefully upon its duties. He was tall and slender, 
and had acquired the surname of Longshanks. 

§ 2. Few sons have differed more from their fathers than the 
stem and able Edward Longshanks did from the feeble Henry of 
Winchester. When his skill and courage had brought the civil 
war to a close, he avoided the risk of its renewal, as we have ob¬ 
served, by half inducing, half compelling several of the disaffected 
nobles to go with him on a crusade. a Louis, the King 

“ § 25, p ‘ 181 ‘ of France (known as Saint Louis), who was at its 
head, died at Tunis, on the coast of Africa, and the enterprise was 
then abandoned by the French; but Edward declared that he would 
visit the Holy Land, though only his horse-boy should go with 
him. He accordingly sailed for Acre, where he was joyfully re¬ 
ceived by the Christians, whose territory was reduced to a mere 
strip of land along the coast. Though his force was small, he 
captured Nazareth, and defeated the Saracens in several battles, 
when they endeavored to assassinate him, and his life was only 
saved, according to the statement of some of the old writers, by 
the devotion of his wife, a Spanish princess (Eleanor of Castile), 

1 His reign was reckoned to commence on this day, four days after his father’s death, 
although he was not crowned until a year and nine months afterward, on his return 
from the crusade. Henceforth the practice of dating a king's reign from the day of 
his coronation fell into disuse. 



Chapter VI.] 


183 


THE PLANTAGENETS. 

Edward's Coronation. His energy. The Welsh Princes. 

who sucked the poison from the wound. This is a fable. A sur- 
oeon of Acre scarified the wound, and the Grand-Master of the 

o 

Templars sent a drug that was an antidote to the poison. 

§ 3. Soon after this Edward left Palestine, but he journeyed 
slowly through Italy and France, and visited Gascony, where he 
suppressed a rebellion. He arrived in England on the 12th of 
August, 1274. On his landing at Dover he was. received by his 
council, which had governed the realm since the death of his 
father, and he was shortly afterward crowned [Aug. 19, 1274], 
with his queen, at Westminster Abbey. The rejoicings were great. 
He had sent orders for preparing 380 head of cattle; 430 sheep ; 
450 pigs; 18 wild boars; 278 flitches of bacon; and 19,660 
capons and fowls for the occasion; and, as one mode of amusing 
the populace, w r e are told that 500 great horses, fit for war, were 
turned loose, to be the prize of all who could catch them. 

§ 4. The king at once set himself to work to make his autho¬ 
rity felt by all his subjects, as some slight attempts at insurrection 
had occurred in his absence. His next care was to replenish his 
treasury; but instead of acting, as his predecessors had done, 
on his own will, he thought it necessary to have also the sanction 
of Parliament, so popular had that institution already become. 
Accordingly, from this time forward we have a constant succession 
of demands for money made by kings, and of privileges asked in 
return by their subjects, which in the end effected a total change 
in the system of government introduced by the Normans, and 
brought it nearer to what it had been in Saxtn times.* a § ^ p g7 
The English statute-book in reality commences with 
the reign of Edward the First, and so much was done in giving 
an orderly form to the administration of the law, that the king is 
sometimes styled the English Justinian. 

§5. Ever since the time of Edward the Confessor * the Welsh 
princes had been considered as the vassals ° f the b § 17, p. 78. 
King of England; but they had rendered neither 
obedience nor tribute except to kings of firm and warlike charac¬ 
ter. Llewelyn, Prince of Wales, who was betrothed to the beautiful 
Elinor de Montfort, daughter of the Earl of Leicester/ o ^ ^ p 176 
had taken part with De Montfort in the late war, 
and at its close he had been obliged to make a formal submission 
by charter. This satisfied the feeble Henry, but the new king 
was resolved to have his authority as the feudal Lord of Wales 


184 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book Y. 

Invasion of Wales. The Country Conquered. Measures to Secure it. 

more publicly acknowledged. He therefore summoned Llewelyn 
to do him homage at his first parliament at Westminster [a.d. 1275]; 
but this Llewelyn declined to do, unless he had hostages for liis 
safety, saying that he remembered the fate of his fathei Griffith, 
who had been unjustly imprisoned in the Tower of London, and 
was killed in trying to make his escape. 

§ 6. The king dissembled his anger until he had collected a 
large army, when he marched into Wales, took Llewelyn prisoner, 
and brought him to London. After having been stripped of all 
his land except the isle of Anglesey ft and the moun- 
§ 9, p-2. tainous re gion of Snowdon, he was released [1277] 
upon promising to pay a heavy tribute. His affianced was captured 
in the English Channel, while on her way, with her brother, to 
join the Welsh king, and a ransom for her was refused. Many 
of Llewelyn’s castles were given to the Marchers, and these new 
masters so harassed the Welsh that they soon began to take up 
arms to recover their freedom. 

§ 7. In the fifth year of their subjection, by sudden attacks, the 
Welsh captured Hawarden Castle, and destroyed those of Flint 
and Rliuddlan. Roger de Clifford, one of the Lords Marchers, 
fell into their hands and was put to death, and. the English gar¬ 
risons generally fell back across the Severn and the Dee. The 
king at once repaired to Shrewsbury, and whilst a body of hired 
soldiers was collected from Gascony, he sent the Cinque Ports fleet 
to ravage the Welsh coasts, as the rising against his rule extended 
from one end of the country to the other. At length, in the 
winter of 1282, all was ready, and though the English troops lost 
many men in crossing the river Conway, the country was speedily 
subdued. Llewelyn was surprised and killed by the Marchers, 
and his brother David, who continued the war for a short time 
after, being taken prisoner, was condemned by the Parliament 
and executed as a traitor. 

§ 8. To render any fresh rising hopeless, many new castles were 
erected under the king’s own direction, which differ so much 
from any former ones that they are still known as Edwardian. 
Sheriffs and other royal officers were appointed in a few districts, 
and some towns had English settlers placed in them, on whom 
great privileges were conferred; but the rest of the 

u § 10 , p. 109. coun k r y wag gi ven U p to the Marchers, 1 * who abused 
their authority in a most tyrannical manner. The king had promised 


185 


Chapter YI.J THE PLANTAGENETS. 

English Oppressors. The Gavestons. Extortions. 

that the people should retain their old laws in civil matters, but 
the Marchers disregarded this, and acted as oppressively as the 
Normans had done in England two hundred years before. They 
filled their castles with the foreign soldiers brought in by the king, 
whom the people regarded with even greater hatred than the rest 
of their conquerors; a feeling that was fostered by the songs of 
the bards. Hence the castle-men hunted down the minstrels with 
such eager cruelty as to give rise to the popular story of a gen¬ 
eral massacre of the whole body by the order of the king. 

§ 9. Having offered some rich spoils from Wales to the church 
of Westminster, Edward next repaired to Gascony, where a rebel¬ 
lion had again broken out, and he found it necessary to remain in 
that country for more than three years [a.d. 1286—1289]. One 
very important consequence of this long residence abroad was the 
introduction of Piers Gaveston to the English court. His father 
was Sir Arnold Gaveston, a Gascon knight who was very active 
against the rebels, but, as he had once served the King of France, 
he was, when taken prisoner, executed as a traitor, whilst his wife 
was burnt as a witch. They left, beside other children, a boy, 
who, in compassion for his parents’ fate, was chosen by the queen 
as an attendant on her only son, Edward. The handsome person 
and engaging manners of the youth made him a general favorite 
in the royal household, whilst over the young prince himself he 
gained an extraordinary influence, which had most unhappy con¬ 
sequences, as we shall observe. 

§ 10. Whilst the king thus remained abroad, affairs fell into 
confusion in England, and on his return he levied enormous fines 
on many of his judges and other officers. As a warning to their 
successors, he built a clock-tower opposite his palace at Westmin¬ 
ster, where the courts were held, with a part of the money; the 
rest, which was reckoned at more than 100,000 marks, went into the 
royal treasury, as no compensation was given to those who had 
suffered from the unjust judges. At a later period of his reign 
[a. d. 1305] the king sent a body of judges and armed men all 
over the country, with the avowed intent of summarily redressing 
numerous evils that had arisen during his wars in the a § ^ p 1S4 
north. a These were called the “ trail-baton justices,” 
and their establishment was something more akin to setting up 
martial law than to the issuing of special commissions for the 
trial of rioters in modern times, only that their proceedings were 


186 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Boot V.. 

Cruelty toward the Jews. The Scotch claimed as Vassals, 

directed rather to levying heavy fines for the king’s benefit than to 
their professed object. 

§11. Edward next employed himself in banishing the Jews, a 
race for whom he seems to have had such a personal hatred, that 
his usage of them was even more severe than that of his fathei 
had been. At the very first parliament that he summoned, he had 
caused their usury to be restrained. Next he obliged them to 
wear a mark on their garments, which distinguished them from 
Christians, and exposed them to every kind of insult and danger; 
and when they were accused of clipping the coin, he hanged them 
by the hundred, though he let the Christians who were charged 
with the same offence, and were, the chroniclers tell us, “mainly 
the rich citizens of London,” redeem their lives by a heavy fine. 
His mother obtained from him a charter forbidding any Jews to 
live on her estates, and the Bishop of London pulled down their 
synagogue. Now [a.d. 1290] the king determined to drive them 
from the land, and they had but two months allowed them to 
seek other homes, after which they were forbidden to remain 
under pain of death. Their houses were seized by the king, 
which, says the chronicler, “yielded him an incredible store of 
riches; ” but, with a forbearance that was then not often shown to 
the objects of royal displeasure, they were allowed to keep their 
movable property, and passes were granted to them for their per¬ 
sonal safety. In defiance of this, a number of them were drowned 
at the mouth of the Thames for the sake of their riches, but the 
king executed their murderers. 

§ 12. The Scottish kings, like the Welsh princes, had been oc¬ 
casionally forced to acknowledge themselves the vassals of the 
King of England; but the acknowledgment was very differently 
understood in the two countries. In England it was taken to 
mean that the kingdom of Scotland was only an English depen¬ 
dency, and that the homage done was for its crown; on the other 
hand, the Scots maintained that it was only for Cumberland, or 
Huntingdon, the earldoms of which the Scottish kings held under 
the kings of England, as these held Normandy, or Brittany, or 
Gascony, under the kings of France. This, indeed, seems to have 
been the true state of the case, but it did not satisfy Edward, and 
circumstances put it in his power to decide the question in his 
own favor, although that decision was afterwards overruled by 
the sword. This struggle occupied the last seventeen years of 



-Chapter VI.] THE PLANTAGENETS. 187 

Plan of Union with Scotland. Decision of Commissioners. Homage to Edward. 

Edward’s reign, and it was not finally decided until long after his 
death. 

§ 13. Alexander the Third of Scotland had married Edward's 
sister, Margaret, by whom he had a daughter of the same name, 
who married Eric the Second of Norway, and died before her 
father, leaving, as the heiress of the Scottish crown, another Mar¬ 
garet, of the age of two years. On the death of Alexander, a 
year after, this child, who was styled the “ Maid of Norway,” was 
acknowledged as queen, and Edward endeavored to provide for 
the future union of England and Scotland by proposing a mar¬ 
riage between her and his son Edward, who was a year younger 
than she was. But this plan failed, as Margaret died while on 
her way to Scotland [a.d. 1290], before she had attained her 
seventh year. There was thus no direct heir to the crown left, but 
no less than thirteen claimants appeared, and though these were 
soon reduced to two (John Baliol, lord of Galloway, and Robert 
Bruce, Earl of Annandale), their claims appeared so equally bal¬ 
anced that the Scottish estates would not venture to decide be¬ 
tween them ; and as a civil war seemed approaching, they referred 
the case to the decision of Edward, a step which they soon had 
reason to regret. 

§ 14. The king speedily repaired with a large army to Norham, 
a castle on the English bank of the Tweed, and though, when ar¬ 
ranging the marriage treaty, he had solemnly acknowledged that 
Scotland was an independent kingdom, he now insisted that he 
should be accepted as its “ sovereign lord,” and that the royal 
castles should be put into his keeping, to enable him to carry out 
any award that he should make. The two competitors then sub¬ 
mitted their claims to a body of English and Scottish commission¬ 
ers, and at last, after a delay of a year and a half, their decision 
was given in favor of Baliol, on the ground that he was descended 
from Margaret, the eldest daughter of David, Earl of Huntingdon, 
the brother of two former kings of Scotland, whilst Bruce was the 
son of Isabel, the second daughter. 

§ 15. The king accepted the judgment of the commissioners as 
his own, and, to avoid future disputes, as he thought, compelled 
Baliol to do homage twice; once before the commissioners, at 
Berwick, and then before himself at Newcastle. The new king 
had to style himself the liegeman of Edward, the sovereign lord 
of Scotland, and to state in express words that he did this homage, 


188 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 


[Book Y. 

The King of Scotland’s Troubles. England’s Allegiance to France. 

on behalf of himself and his heirs, “for the whole kingdom of 
Scotland.” Orders were given to deliver up the royal castles to 
him, and then [a.d. 1292] he was suffered to depart. His subjects 
received him with loud reproaches, as having betrayed the liberties 
of their country. Nor was this his only mortification. According 
to the feudal law, any one who professed that he had been denied 
justice, either in the Scottish courts or by the Scottish king, could 
now appeal to the King of England for redress. The consequence 
was, that Baliol was repeatedly summoned to attend at Westmin¬ 
ster to meet complaints, some of which would seem to have been 
old debts revived for the very purpose of provoking a quarrel. 
He was not allowed to make answer by a deputy, though meaner 
men were permitted to do so, and when he appeared in person he 
was treated only as a private individual. John le Mason, a Gas¬ 
con, claimed a debt for wine which he asserted he had supplied 
many years before to King Alexander; but that prince’s executors 
alleged that it had been discharged. Baliol, however, was ordered 
to pay it forthwith, on pain of having a part of his private estate 
seized. He returned to Scotland full of indignation, and was at 
once reconciled to his subjects by their common desire to shake off 
the English yoke. That was in the year 1293. 

§ 16. Soon after Edward had forced his feudal supremacy on 
the Scots, he found a demand on his own allegiance made by the 
King of France, in the year i294. He had, in his return from 
Palestine, done homage at Paris, saying to King Philip, “ My lord 
and king, I do you homage for all the territories which I ought to 
hold of you,” a cautious form of words, by which he was under¬ 
stood to keep alive his claim to Normandy and Poitou, which had 
been lost to England in the time of John. But it also included 
Gascony, which he held, and thus he was unquestionably bound, 
according to the feudal law, to answer in the French courts for 
any injuries sustained by Frenchmen from his subjects. A case of 
this kind occurred, when Edward at once refused to abide by the 
rules that he had forced at the point of the sword on the Welsh 
and the Scots. 

§ 17. Some English sailors were murdered on the coast of 
France, in a casual quarrel, and some Frenchmen were hanged in 
return by the Cinque Ports men. This was. a matter that had hap¬ 
pened many times before, and had it gone no further neither 
Philip nor Edward would probably have noticed it. But ^he 


189 


Chapter VI.] THE PLANTAGENETS. 

A fierce Naval Warfare. Money for Crusading. Extortions. 

French sailors, instead of bearing patiently the retaliation, put to 
sea, and when they had succeeded in taking an English vessel, 
hanged all the men at the yard-arm, and ventured to come in sight 
of the English coast with the bodies thus displayed. A fierce war 
followed, without the consent of their sovereigns being asked, 
between the lawless sailors of both nations. The Cinque Ports 
men had for allies some ships from Ireland, and others from 
Denmark and Norway, whilst the Scots and the Spaniards helped 
the French. Much damage was done, and at last, by mutual con¬ 
sent. a pitched battle was fought off St. Mahe, in Brittany [April 
14, 1298], when the French were defeated with great slaugh¬ 
ter. King Philip then took up the cause of his people, and sum¬ 
moned Edwnrd to appear at Paris. As Edward took no no¬ 
tice of this, after a lapse of three months his fief of Gascony 
was declared forfeited, and French troops marched in to take 
possession. 

§ 18. Edward now publicly renounced his fealty to the King of 
France, and set to work to raise an army to reconquer Gascony. 
He also made an alliance with the Count of Flanders, who, like 
himself, had broken his feudal allegiance. In violation of the 
Great Charter,* 1 he resorted to the most violent means # § ^ p m 
for raising money. Shortly before this, the Moham¬ 
medans had driven the Christians from Acre, their last fortress in 
the Holy Land, but large sums were still collected yearly for its 
recovery, and these were laid up in the monasteries. The king 
now took possession of all tliis treasure, declaring that he was far 
more in want of money than his dear brothers the Hospitallers and 
the Templars. He also seized on the goods of merchants, and 
sold them in Flanders for half their value, and he forced the 
clergy to give him one-half of their revenues. As he found them 
at first unwilling to do so, he sent John Havering, one of his 
knights, to their assembly at Westminster, who called on any one 
wiio objected to come forward, “ so that he might be taken notice 
of, as unworthy of the king’s peace,” which meant that he would 
be an outlaw, and neither his goods nor his life be safe. The 
demand, of course, was then granted, and an army collected; 
but this was detained so long at Portsmouth, by bad weather, that 
the French had completely conquered Gascony. 

$ 19. The enterprise was now abandoned, for news came that 
the Welsh had taken up arms, under Madoc and Morgan, the kins- 


190 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 


[Book Y. 

Rebellions "Wales Subdued. Troubles in Scotland and Gascony. 

men of their late prince, Llewelyn.* The royal army was now 
recruited by pardoned malefactors, and a part of it 

a § <, p. gen ^ un( j er the king’s brother, the Earl of Lancaster, 
against them; but the Welsh defeated the earl, and burnt several 
of the new castles. The king followed in haste, and passed the 
winter in Wales. He rebuilt the castles and founded another at 
Beaumaris, and having at length captured Madoc, brought him to 
London, where he died a prisoner in the Tower. 

§ 20. Soon after Edward’s return from Wales, the Scots, in a 
parliament at Scone [a.d. 1295], deposed Baliol, and appointed 
a council of regency of twelve peers, which sought aid from 
France. Edward learnt this, and at once marched into Scotland, 
gained a victory at Dunbar, and captured the Maidens’ Castle, near 
Edinburgh, where the chief ladies of the kingdom bad taken 
refuge. Baliol soon after surrendered himself, and formally re¬ 
signed the royal dignity, when he was sent a prisoner to the Tower. 
Edward then appointed Warren, Earl of Surrey, guardian of the 
kingdom, and Hugh Cressingham, treasurer, and marched back to 
England, carrying with him the Stone of Destiny, as it was called, 
on which the Scottish kings were crowned, 1 and the regalia, as also 
many Scottish nobles as hostages, on several of whom he bestowed 
lands in the south of England in forced exchange for their own. 

§ 21. Whilst Edward was engaged in this campaign in Scotland, 
his affairs had gone badly in Gascony. His brother, the Earl of 
Lancaster, had ravaged the French coast, and taken Bordeaux, but 
died soon afterward, and his successor, Lord St. John, was defeated 
and taken prisoner. To remedy this, the king tried to raise a new 
army; but the Earls of Norfolk and Essex positively refused to go 
with him, though they held the high offices of earl marshal and 
high constable. They also forbade the sheriffs to levy any taxes 
until Magna Charta b was again confirmed. The king 

^ § 16 p 160 ° ° o 

’ ’ ’ was then carrying on the war with but small success 

in Flanders, for his seamen fought among themselves. 2 His soldiers 

1 This stone, which was, according to the legend, Jacob's pillow at Bethel (Genesis 
xxviii.), is imbedded in the seat of the coronation chair now in Westminster Abbey; 
but the regalia were restored to the Scots by Edward the Third. 

2 The Cinque Ports men, as being especially “king’s men,” and bearing the cross of 
St. George, assumed/a superiority over the rest of the mariners, from such towns as Yar¬ 
mouth, Southampton, and Fowey, who were by them regarded as mere merchant sea¬ 
men. This arrogant feeling, which often led to furious combats, continued as long as 
the Ports had a‘fleet of their own. 


Chapter VI.] THE PLANT AG EXETS. 1^ I 

The Career of Wallace. Wars against Scotland. Strange Claim to Sovereignty. 

were also unmanageable, for they were mutinous for want of pay. 
He was therefore obliged to give way, and soon afterwards he made 
a truce with the King of France [a.d. 1297], as fresh troubles had 
broken out in Scotland. 

§ 22. Warren had induced most of the Scottish nobles to swear 
allegiance to Edward; but William Wallace, a knight of the west 
country, refused to do so, and gathered a band of courageous men, 
with whom he captured the royal treasure at Scone, and thus pro¬ 
cured many more adherents. Warren advanced against him, but 
received a complete overthrow at Cambuskenneth, near Stirling, and 
was driven out of the kingdom. Cressmgham, the treasurer, who 
had been guilty of much wanton oppression* was among the slain, 
and the victors, it is said, flayed his body and made bridles of his 
skin. Not content with this triumph, Wallace marched into 
England as far as the Tyne, and ravaged the country in the 
English manner. 

§ 23. Edward now again overran Scotland, defeating the Scots 
at Falkirk, and again returning triumphant, to England. He 
indeed seems to have thought the war was ended, as he set at lib¬ 
erty John Baliol in exchange for Lord St. John; but the Scots at 
once elected a regency, at the head of which they placed Robert 
Bruce (the son of the one who had competed for the m § ^ p 1S7 
crown a ), and John Comyn, Earl of Badenoch, who was 
also of royal descent. By surprise they captured the strong castle 
of Stirling. This brought Edward and his army among them for 
the third time, and the usual ravage followed; but the spirited 
resistance of the Scots procured them the intercession of the Pope, 
who. claiming a kind of guardianship over all kingdoms, addressed 
a letter to the king, enumerating many instances in which both he 
and his father had acknowledged that Scotland was not subject to 
England, and entreated him to set at liberty his prisoners and 
withdraw his troops. In a letter that is still extant, Edward and 
his barons indignantly denied that any person had a right to inter¬ 
fere between him and his “rebel subjects the Scots,’ 1 who, they 
asserted, had been dependent on England since the days of Brutus, 
who had subdued the giants of Albion, and given his own name 
to Britain. This legend, among others concerning the b § t ^ t 
orioin of the ancient Britons b was long received as 
truth. It relates that in the time of the Hebrew judges, Albion, 
as the island was called, was inhabited by giants. These 


192 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 


[Book Y. 

Other Invasions of Scotland. Siege of Sterling. 

were subdued by Bratus, a descendant of iEneas the Trojan, 
renowned as the founder of Rome. Brutus, who gave the island 
his name, since changed into Britain, is said to have founded a 
great city on the River Thames, and called it Trovnovant, or New 
Troy, but it was afterwards embellished by King Lud, the brother 
of Cassivellaunus, a who styled it after himself, Caer 
»§ 16, p. 10. or L uc p s town, and which is now London. 

Brutus was said to have had three sons, Locrin, Albanact, and 
Camber, to whom he gave England, Scotland, and Wales. Locrin 
was the eldest born and the superior of the three, and from this 
it followed that Scotland and Wales were of right subject to 
England. 

§ 24. As soon as this answer had been despatched from the 
Parliament at Lincoln, Edward again marched into Scotland, and 
wintered there; but the resistance of the Scots was beginning to 
tell on his resources. He could not venture again to seize on his 
people’s goods as he had done before, and early in the next year 
he agreed to a ten months’ truce. This interval was employed in 
treating for a peace with the French king ; but as that monarch re¬ 
fused to abandon his Scottish allies, it came to nothing. When 
the war again broke out, they retook Stirling, 15 and 
b ^ p ' 191 ‘ also gained a victory at Roslin. Enraged at this, 
Edward offered such tempting terms to the French that they made 
a peace, which left the Scots exposed to his fury, 

§ 25. Edward now lost no time in making his fifth inroad, 
which was more merciless than any of the former ones. It was in 
the year 1303. He burnt the churches and monasteries, which 
had hitherto been spared. The royal abbey of Dunfermline was 
demolished, and he penetrated as far as the Moray Frith. He 
passed the winter in the country, during which both Brace and 
Comyn submitted to him, and at a parliament held at St. Andrew’s, 
the garrison of Stirling, the last remaining Scottish stronghold, 
were declared outlaws. As their submission seemed all that was 
wanting to the complete subjugation of the land, Edward marched 
against them in person. 

§ 26. The siege lasted for four months, and during its progress 
the king, to encourage his men, rode romid the walls daily on his 
war-horse, but without armor, as if defying all the efforts of the 
garrison; but this show of contempt had nearly cost liim dear. 
At one time an arrow passed between his horse’s reins ; at another, 


Chatter VI. 1 THE PLANTAGENETS. 193 

Humble Submission of the Scotch. Edward’s Tyranny. Life and Fate of Wallace. 

a bolt from a cross-bow pierced his robe ; and at another, a huge 
stone from the walls brought his steed to the ground. Still the 
siege went on, until William Oliphant, the governor, found that 
he had but three days 1 provision left. He then offered to sur¬ 
render, if he and his garrison might obtain mercy. So much 
were the English nobles impressed with their gallant defence, that 
they promised to intercede for them ; but it was necessary for them 
to humble themselves greatly before the king, in order to soothe 
his pride and anger. Accordingly, by the advice of their new 
friends, the Scots came out of the castle barefoot, and with ashes on 
their heads, and with ropes round their necks, which, according to 
the custom of the time, was the same as owning themselves traitors 
and thieves, and bending before the king, asked his grace. He 
answered, “I will not receive you to my grace, for you deserve it 
not, but only to my will.” They replied, as they had been 
directed, that they submitted to his will. ^Edward answered, 
“ My will is to tear you limb from limb, and hang you; but if 
you have hope to defend yourselves, I will allow you to go back 
to the castle.” 

§ 27. Knowing that this would only be to defer certain death 
for a few days, the Scots now threw themselves on the ground, 
saying, “ Take us, O lord king! subject to thy will! ” After 
contemplating them at his feet for awhile, Edward suffered him¬ 
self to be persuaded to spare their lives, and sent them to various 
prisons in England. He then appointed John de Segrave, a 
famous warrior, governor of Scotland, and taking the chief nobles 
with him, he returned to England. That year [1304] he kept his 
Christmas at Lincoln, “ with such state as became the monarch 
and lord of two kingdoms,” says the chronicler, the Scots being 
obliged to be present, and to witness the rewards bestowed on the 
conquerors of their country. A solemn thanksgiving at West¬ 
minster followed. Wallace was soon afteiwards captured near 
Glasgow, brought to London, and on the 23d of August, 1305, he 
was executed at Sinithfield. 

§ 28. Sir William Wallace was about thirty-five yearn of age at 
the time of his death. He was of Anglo-Norman descent, of fiery 
blood, and while yet a pupil in school, killed an insolent young son 
of an Englishman. He fled, and for five years he was an outlaw 
among the border Highlands. He was accomplished and brave, 
and the idol of his followers. He was a bold and skilful soldier; 

9 


194 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 


[Book V. 

Affairs in Scotland. Robert Bruce King ' 

and for years he was the most formidable opponent the English 
had in Scotland, as a regular leader or guerilla warrior. His 
capture and death was a heavy blow to the Scotch, and a great 
relief to King Edward, who, with his counsellors, completed, at his 
leisure, a code of laws for his new subjects. They were regarded 
as a completely subdued people. We shall see, presently, how mis¬ 
taken were the English in their estimate of Scottish character. 

§ 29. Robert Bruce, the regent, died shortly after his submission 
to Edward, and was succeeded in his earldom of Annandale by 
his son of the same name. The young noble had adhered to the 
English party, and had served on their side at Falkirk. He had 
long resided in Edward’s court; but the death of Wallace, who 
had appealed to him in vain to join his countrymen, made a deep 
impression on him. Some remarks that he uttered on the subject 
were carried to the king, and it was determined to imprison him. 
But he had a friend in the Earl of Gloucester, who was Edward’s 
son-in-law, and from him he received a purse of gold and a pair 
of spurs. Such symbolic messages were then not uncommon, and 
Bruce readily understood that he was advised to flee for his life. 
He did so; and baffling pursuit by having his horse’s shoes re¬ 
versed, he got safe into Scotland about four months after Wal¬ 
lace’s death. An assembly of nobles was soon afterward held in 
the abbey of Dumfries, when Bruce was received as their leader, 
Comyn, who had been regent, alone objecting, on the ground that 
he had become the liegeman of the king of England. Most of the 
others had also done this, but he, only, considered his oath bind¬ 
ing. A fierce quarrel ensued at the high altar in the convent of 
the Minorites at Dumfries, when Bruce stabbed Comyn. His 
brother also was murdered by one of Bruce’s attendants. This 
tragedy rendered any agreement with Edward impossible. The 
people of the whole country at once flew to arms, chased the 
English justiciaries and garrisons to Berwick, and crowned then* 
leader at Scone, by the name of Robert the First, on the 27th of 
March, 1306. 

§ 30. When the news of this coronation was brought to Edward 
he saw that his work was to be begun again, and though now old 
and feeble, he resolved to die in the field rather than abandon his 
design of making Scotland a part of his realm. He bestowed 
knighthood upon his son and three hundred other young nobles. 
Piers Gaveston and Hugh De Spenser, afterwards so unhappily 


195 


Chapter VI.] THE PLANTAGENETS. 

Edward’s Vow of Vengeance. Invasions of Scotland. Edward’s Death. 

known, were among them; and at the feast that concluded the 
ceremony, the king took a solemn oath that he would avenge the 
death of Cornyn and reconquer the Scots. He also exacted an 
oath from his son and the nobles, that if he should die before this 
was accomplished, they should carry his corpse with them, and 
not give it Christian burial until they had fulfilled, his design. 
On the following day [May 22, 1306], the young khights and 
their followers commenced their march for Scotland, under Aymer 
cle Valence, son of William de Valence, who was made Earl of 
Pembroke by Henry the Tliird, a and who was a 

J J ’ a § 1, p. 171. 

cousin of the king. After a short time they gave 
battle to Bruce, at Methven, in Perthshire, where he received so 
great an overthrow that for months he had to lead the life of a 
fugitive in the remote isles of Scotland. 

§ 31. Edward soon left England for the last time, and took 
with him a strong reinforcement for his army. Wherever he ap¬ 
peared the Scots again submitted, and almost all of Bruce’s family 
fell into his hands. The men were executed, and the women 
were closely imprisoned. But these misfortunes did not break the 
spirit of the new Scottish king. Every now and then he issued 
suddenly from his hiding-places, and so kept the English garrisons 
in a state of alarm, obliging Edward himself to march to their 
relief, though in the depth of winter. 

§ 32. When the next summer came a fresh English army was 
assembled at Carlisle, and the king put himself at its head, though 
scarcely able to sit on his horse, with the avowed intention of 
ravaging the whole of Scotland with fire and sword. But his 
power was unequal to his will. On the second day of his march 
he became unable to journey any farther, and two days afterward 
he died, at Burgh-on-the-Sands, only five miles from Carlisle, but 
in sight of Scotland. This was on the 7th of July, 1307. His 
son had been hastily summoned to him, and Froissart, the chroni¬ 
cler, says that his last charge to the prince, delivered with his 
dying breath and under pain of his curse, was, neither to be 
crowned himself, nor to bury his father’s bones, until Scotland 
had been utterly subdued. But this cannot be true, for the crown 
prince was not present when his father died. Such directions, if 
given, were disregarded. 

§ 33. Edward, whose well-known name of Longshanks brings 
him at once before the eye, was a tall, stately, austere personage. 


196 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book Y. 

Edward and his Reign. Accession of Edward the Second. 

He was well versed in war and government, and these accomplish¬ 
ments made him really a great king, though very far indeed from 
a just and good man. He showed no more regard for his word 
or oath, or repeated confirmations of Magna Charta, than his 
father had done; a but he was merciless in punish- 
a § 9, p. l<4. an y k reac h G f engagements to himself which by 
his sword he had obliged others to contract. Llewelyn of Wales 
fell in battle, b but the deaths of his brother David 
t § 7 , p. 184. 0 f Wallace were nothing else than murders 

committed in the name of laws to which they were not properly 
amenable. 0 The improvements of the laws, by which 
c § 27, p. 103. his re jg n jg usually said to be distinguished, were 
really only commenced in his day, and, as has been seen, did not 
protect his subjects from his own exactions. These showed him 
to be utterly unscrupulous ; but as he was wise enough to see how 
far he could safely go, and when it was necessary to give way, he, 
on the whole, retained the good-will of his own people, though 
distrusted or feared by his neighbors. 


CHAPTER YH. 

eeign of Edward the Second, [a.d. 1307 to 1327.] 

§ 1. The death of Edward the First was concealed from the 
people in the English capital until the 25th of July, or for the 
space of eighteen days, during which time the Bishop of London 
and Chancellor of the kingdom continued to affix the great seal 
of. the realm to official documents. But the new king, then only 
in the twenty-third year of his age, was received as monarch by 
the peers at Carlisle on Saturday, the 8th, or the day after his 
father died. From that time his reign is dated. In the autumn 
he buried his father’s remains' 1 in Westminster Abbey, 

§ 32, p. 195. anc j following year [1308] he married Isabella of 
France, and so formed a powerful political connection. . 

§ 2. The young king had already served in two campaigns 
against the Scots, and had acquitted himself creditably. Walter 
of Exeter, a poet of his father’s time, when describing the siege of 
Caerlaverock, in the year 1300, says of him, that “he was then 



Chapter VII.] THE PLANTAGENETS. 197 

Person and Character of the new King. He and his Favorite disgraced. 

bearing arms for the first time. He was of a well-proportioned 

and handsome person, of a courteous disposition, and intelligent, 

and desirous of finding an occasion to display his prowess; he 

managed his steed wonderfully well.” He seems indeed to have 

behaved himself so as to give satisfaction to his stem father, who, 

in consequence, bestowed the principality of Wales upon him at 

the close of the campaign. He had now a household of his own, 

in which both Gaveston and He Spenser, a afterwards 

1 ’ a 130, p. 194. 

so well known, held office; the fornier, however, being 

the chief favorite, as nearer to the prince’s age, and like him in his 

light, gay disposition. 

§ 3. After a while both the prince and Gaveston fell into disgrace 
with the king, who at first punished them too severely, and after¬ 
wards went to the contrary extreme. Walter Langton, the Bishop of 
Lichfield, complained that they had broken into his park and killed 
his deer, when the king, without listening to anything that the 
prince could say, broke up his household, seized his revenues, and 
refused to see him, though the youth followed the court for many 
days from place to place, offering the most humble apologies. In 
this strait he found friends, not only in his sisters, w T lio sent him, - 
money, and placed their property at his disposal, but in the queen, 
who, though only his stepmother, so warmly interceded for him 
that the king relented, restored his lands, and, as the mark of his 
perfect forgiveness, included Gaveston and De Spenser among the 
youths who were made knights along with the prince. b b 3Q ^ m 
But Gaveston soon gave some fresh offence, was 
again banished, and the king made it one of his last requests that 
he should never be allowed to return. 

§ 4. Unfortunately, the new king acted in opposition to this as 
well as the rest of his father’s directions, and as this was offensive 
to many of his nobles, they also having sworn to see these direc¬ 
tions observed, his reign, from its very commencement, was a scene 
of trouble and confusion. Though personally courageous, he was 
indolent, and but too well inclined to cast the cares of government 
on whoever would undertake them. His favorites were in reality 
what would now be styled his prime ministers; but the nobility 
liacl been used to the personal rule of their king, and would not 
have obeyed any deputy, even had he been far more able than the 
gafy young Gascon whom they had known as a page, 

§ 5. One of Edward’s first steps was to recall Gaveston, whom, 


198 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book Y. 

The Insolence of Gaveston. The Parliament and Gaveston. 

even before his arrival, lie created Earl of Cornwall. His next was 
to leave Scotland to the care of Aymer de Valence," 

« § 30, p. 194. ^ tQ hagten } jac k to England to meet him. The 

favorite at once showed that he had not forgotten any injuries 
that he thought he had received. The Bishop of Lichfield, who 
was also lord treasurer, was imprisoned, and the chancellor ano. 
several of the judges were deprived of office. The nobles remon¬ 
strated, but met only with light jests from the king, whilst Gaves¬ 
ton had the imprudence to give them nicknames, styling the Earl 
of Lancaster “the Old Hog” and “the Stage-player;” Aymer de 
Valence “ Joseph the Jew,” from his tall gaunt figure and sallow 
visage, and the swarthy Earl of Warwick “the Black Dog,” 
insults which were never forgiven. The king, however, seemed 
.to delight jn provoking them by bestowing estates and honors on 
Gaveston. He gave him his own niece in marriage, with vast 
riches; granted him lands in every part of England, as well as in 
Gascony; styled him brother; and at last made him regent of the 
kingdom, when he went to France, in the year 1308, to marry 
Isabella, the daughter of Philip the Fourth. So extravagant, in¬ 
deed, did the king’s fondness for him appear, that it was ascribed 
to sorcery; and the favorite, whilst no one would accept his enter¬ 
tainments, or style him Earl of Cornwall, received instead the nick¬ 
name of “the Witch’s Son.” 

§ 6. The parliament assembled soon after the king’s return from 
Fiance, in March, 1310, when the banishment of Gaveston was 
insisted on. This the king agreed to, but immediately after ap¬ 
pointed him the governor of Ireland. Here Gaveston showed both 
skill and courage, especially in dealing with the great Anglo-Irish 
lords, who were far more hostile to the royal authority than the 
native Irish. The independence that they had long enjoyed had 
made them the envy of the English nobles, and their chastisement 
caused Gaveston’s offences to be for the time forgotten, so that 
he was allowed to return to England in about a year, on his offer¬ 
ing to meet any accuser, either in the parliament or on the lists, as 
he was skilled in the use of arms. Neither trial was demanded, 
when the king, to testify his joy, granted the whole county of 
Cornwall to him in absolute property, and even bestowed on him a 
vast treasure that King Edward had bequeathed for 

b § is, p. 189. gerv j ce 0 f the Holy Land, b in inpayment of the 

sums that he had seized for his French wars. 


OiiArTEn VII.] 


THE PLANTAGENETS. 


199 


Strife between the King and Barons. Gaveston’s Fate. 

§ 7. This extraordinary favoritism revived all the old dislike. 
The barons refused to attend the king at York for a campaign 
against the Scots, and Gaveston had to flee for his life [August, 
1810]. The parliament soon afterward met at Westminster, and, 
under the direction of Thomas Earl of Lancaster, the king’s 
cousin, drew up “ordinances” for the royal household, which 
were especially directed against Gaveston, he having been the 
lord chamberlain. These the king refused to assent to. He then 
marched into Scotland, and wintered at Berwick, where Gaveston 
joined him, bringing with him some foreign mercenary troops. 
In the spring Gaveston penetrated beyond the Forth. 

§ 8. When the king returned to London, in the summer of 1811, 
he left Gaveston, for safety, in Bamborough Castle. The monarch 
was soon forced to accept the “ordinances” of the parliament, 
which not only again decreed the banishment of Gaveston, but 
placed all the power of the State in the hands of Lancas¬ 
ter H and his associates. The king endured this for 

, B § 5, p. 19o. 

only a few months; and early in the next year he 
recalled Gaveston, who again brought some foreign soldiers with 
him. The hiring of these men, indeed, seems to have been his 
purpose on each occasion when he withdrew from England, and 
in it he expended much of the treasure that had been bestowed 
on him. It must also be remembered that he was in each case 
condemned without a hearing, and that he always professed his 
readiness to stand a legal trial. 

§ 9. Both the king and the barons now took up arms, but the royal 
troops showed no inclination to fight for the monarch. Gaveston 
therefore fled, with a few of his mercenaries, to Scarborough Cas¬ 
tle, where he jvas besieged, and was soon obliged to surrender. 
His life was promised to him, but this promise his captors did not 
mean to keep. They were Aymer de Valence b and b § ^ p m 
Lord Percy; and though, “for their oath’s sake,” 
they would not kill him themselves, they guarded him so neg¬ 
ligently that the Earl of Warwick was allowed to carry him off. 
The latter had made no promise, and saying that “ The witch’s 
son should feel the black dog’s c teeth,” he beheaded o § g ^ m 
him in their presence, without even the form of a 
trial. The king, deserted by his troops, was obliged to grant a 
pardon to all concerned. The parliament declared that what had 
been done, had been done “ for the king’s honor,” and he and his 


200 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 


[Book V. 

The Scots and Welsh in'Arms. Affairs in Ireland. 

cousins, Lancaster and De Valence, his brother-in-law Hereford, 
Percy, Warwick, and the rest, were formally reconciled [a.d. 1312], 
though all alike were insincere. 

§ 10. Whilst the strength of the nation was wasted in these 
quarrels, the Scots had driven out almost every English garrison, 
and Stirling, the last remnant of Edward’s conquests, was now 
besieged by them. To relieve it, all the royal tenants were sum¬ 
moned ; but Lancaster, Warren, Warwick, and others refused to 
attend. Nevertheless a large army was gathered, which the king 
led in person to Bannockburn ; but Aymer de Valence and other 
nobles, fearing that the king, if victorious, would prove strong 
enough to revenge himself on them, treacherously fled at the first 
onset, and in consequence the English army received a terrible 
defeat [June 23, 1314] from a body of Scots of not half their 
number. 

§ 11. This ill success made Edward more unpopular than ever, 
though he had behaved gallantly in the battle, and Lancaster now 
openly took the direction of the government. In this distress the 
king chose another favorite, as he was termed, but more properly 
a minister, on whose attachment he could rely. This was Hugh 
de Spenser, who had been in his household along with Gaveston, 
and was a man well versed in war. He was also of noble family, 
and had many friends and relatives among the barons. He thus 
formed a strong party that was ready to oppose the designs of 
Lancaster and his associates, who manifestly aimed at reducing 
the king to a mere state of tutelage, if not deposing him. 

§ 12. Encouraged by the success of the Scots at Bannockburn, 
the Welsh again took up arms and formed an alliance with them, 
whilst Edward Bruce (the brother of King Robert) passed into 
Ireland [a.d. 1315], where he was received with joy by the natives, 
who knew that any change of masters could not be for the worse, 
so tyrannically did the Anglo-Irish lords behave. The Welsh were 
soon put down, but Lancaster and his friends absolutely refused 
to march against the Scots, and it appeared afterwards that they 
had entered into a traitorous agreement with them. The Scots, 
thus unopposed, next took Berwick, and then marching into 
Yorkshire, they ravaged the country, when the king narrowly 
escaped capture. 

§ 13. The next year [a.d. 1319], through the activity of De 
Spenser, he gathered an army, at the head of which he marched 


Chapter VII.] THE PLANTAGENETS. 201 

A General Reconciliation. The De Spensers. Civil War. 

into Scotland and besieged Berwick, but was unable to retake it. 
In the mean time the Scots had been defeated in Ireland, and their 
leader killed [a.d. 1318]; and a parliament had been held in Eng¬ 
land, when the different parties were formally reconciled, neither 
being strong enough to put down the other. So a compromise 
was agreed to. De Spenser retained his office as lord chamber- 
lain, but Lancaster was placed at the head of a council of sixteen 
appointed to “ assist the king.” This was followed by a two 
years’ truce with the Scots, and before that had expired a total 
change had taken place, which gave, for a while, the government 
into the hands of De Spenser. 

§ 14. The Lord Chamberlain had received in marriage Eleanor 
de Clare, a niece of the king, between whom and her sister (the 
widow of Gaveston) the great estates of the Earl of Gloucester, 
who was killed at Bannockburn, a had been divided. a ^ p m 
De Spenser’s share included a large part of South 
Wales, and a quarrel arose about their boundaries between him 
and the Earl of Hereford. Though the earl was the king’s 
brother-in-law, he was an adherent of the Earl of Lancaster, and 
without ever attempting to settle the matter peaceably, the two 
earls ravaged De Spenser’s lands, and then, marching to London, 
held a parliament on their own authority. Then the favorite and 
his father were banished [a.d. 1321], the king having no power to 
assist them, though the bishops solemnly protested against their 
being condemned unheard, and in their absence; for the elder 
lord was then at his post as Governor of Bristol, and his son was 
at sea, guarding the coasts. Their banishment was attended by 
the seizure of their property, but young De Spenser repaid himself 
for his forfeited lands by making many rich captures. He soon 
returned, bringing with him foreign cross-bowmen, to whom the 
king joined himself [a.d. 1322], when the estates of the barons 
were ravaged in turn. 

§ 15. The two earls now applied to the Scots for assistance, and 
marched to the north to meet their allies. They were followed by 
the king, after pardon had been offered, and being overtaken at 
Boroughbridge, were there totally defeated. The Earl of Here¬ 
ford was killed in the battle, and Lancaster, being taken prisoner, 
was tried by a court-martial and beheaded at Pontefract. Several 
other noble prisoners were also executed; but Roger Mortimer, one 
of the most considerable of them, had his sentence commuted to 
9 * 


202 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 


[Book Y. 

Fate of the King’s Steward. A Traitor. The Queen’s Perfidy. 

perpetual imprisonment. Many of the forfeited estates were given 
to the De Spensers, the elder being also created Earl of Winchester. 

§ 16. Among those executed was “the rich Lord Badlesmere,” 
a Kentish noble, who was treated with peculiar ignominy. He 
had been the king’s steward, and greatly trusted, but had betrayed 
his counsels to the earls; and his wife had refused to admit the 
queen, when on a journey, into Leeds Castle, near Maidstone, of 
which her husband was the keeper. He was taken whilst endea¬ 
voring to escape, and, instead of beheading him at once, like a 
noble, the sentence, as it still stands recorded, was, that “the 
said Bartholomew should be drawn on a sledge to the gallows for 
his treasons, be hanged for his robberies and murders, and have 
his head cut off with a knife for his flight from the field.” He 
was accordingly taken into Kent and hanged on his own land, and 
his head was set over the gate of Canterbury, “as a warning to 
others.” His wife and family were also imprisoned in the Tower. 
This extreme severity was probably due to the angry queen, as 
Edward himself never showed such revengeful feelings. 

§ 17. The Lancastrian party being thus crushed, the king led an 
army into Scotland, but he could effect nothing of moment, one 
of his trusted servants, Andrew Harcla, the warden of the west 
marches, being in league with the Scots, for which he was shortly 
after executed. . His treachery showed that it was not advisable 
to attempt to carry on the war, and a truce followed in 1323. 
This had hardly been concluded when Roger Mortimer escaped 
from the Tower, after a year’s imprisonment, and fled to France, 
and others of the party began again ta ravage the De Spensers’ 
lands. Soon after this the King of France died, and Edward was 
summoned to do homage to his successor. Fearing the overthrow 
of his authority if he left England, he delayed compliance, on 
which the French at once invaded Gascony. At length he was so 
ill-advised as to send his queen (a French princess a ) 

0 § 1, p-196. a me( ji a tor, a step which speedily brought about 
his ruin. She soon came to an understanding with her brother, 
Charles IY., in virtue of which she sent for her eldest son, Ed¬ 
ward, to do the required homage. Then she refused to return 
until the De Spensers were banished. Roger Mortimer became 
her avowed counsellor and favorite; the chiefs of the Lancastrian 
party flocked to her, and even the Earl of Kent, the king’s half- 
brother, joined the train, in the year 1325. 


Chapter VII.] THE PLANTAGENETS. -Go 

The Queen a Rebel and Traitor in arms. A Revolution. 

§ 18. Acting quite like an independent queen, Isabella contracted 
her son in marriage (though only in his fourteenth year) to Phi¬ 
lippa, the daughter of the Count of Holland, and obtained from 
him a body of Flemish troops, commanded by his brother, for the 
invasion of England. On landing in Suffolk [a.d. 1826] she was 
joined by the great body of the people, and the king found him¬ 
self obliged to flee without striking a blow. The Bishop of 
Exeter, his treasurer, was seized in London, and beheaded without 
form of trial, and Robert Baldock, the chancellor, was thrown into 
Newgate, where he died soon after. 

§ 19. The queen and her partisans had pursued the king towards 
Wales, but halted at Bristol, where the elder De Spenser was de¬ 
livered up by his garrison, and was hanged. The younger De 
Spenser escaped with the king, intending to take refuge in Lundy 
Island, which was his property, and which he, in anticipation of 
trouble, had strongly fortified, and provided with all necessary 
stores to stand a siege. But the weather was tempestuous (it was 
in November), the fugitives were unable to land on the rocky 
islet, and, after beating about for some days, were driven on the 
coast of Glamorgan. They took refuge in Neath Abbey, but 
though the town was De Spenser’s own, and had, at his instance, 
received many privileges from the king, not an arm was raised in 
their defence, and they were in a few days obliged to surrender 
at discretion. The king was hurried off to Kenilworth, where he 
was placed in the custody of Henry Earl of Lancaster, the brother 
of him who was beheaded at Pontefract; De Spenser was taken to 
the queen at Hereford, and by her order at once hanged, his head 
being sent to London, as his father’s had been to Winchester.. 
The Earl of Arundel, who almost alone of the nobles had adhered 
to the king, was also seized and executed. As a matter of course 
the vast properties of the sufferers were seized, but much of it was 
restored in the next reign. 

§ 20. With these executions the revolution was in reality com¬ 
pleted, but as the actors chose to have legal sanction for what they 
had done, a parliament was assembled on the 7th of January, 1327, 
which declared the king deposed, and ordered his eldest son to be 
proclaimed in his stead. Young Edward, however, refused to 
accept the royal dignity without his father’s consent, and accord¬ 
ingly two bishops and several barons were sent to Kbnilworth to 
require the royal prisoner to resign his throne. He simply replied 


204 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Rook V. 

Accession of Edward the Third. Murder of Edward the Second. 

that he was in their power, and must submit to whatever they 

chose. This answer was taken as sufficient to remove the new 

king’s scruples, and Edward the Second was nominally succeeded 

by his son, though for some years the real power remained in the 

hands of the shameless queen—the “ She-Wolf of France”—and 

her paramour Mortimer/ who forsook his wife and 
*$16.p. 201. f : ... ’ 

family to reside with her. 

§ 21. So after a troubled reign of somewhat less than twenty 
years, Edward of Carnarvon, as he was surnamed, was deprived of 
his throne. After a short time he was removed from Kenilworth, 
where the Earl of Lancaster treated him with kindness,, and was 
taken to Corfe Castle. Thence he was removed to Bristol, and 
finally to Berkeley by ruffians, who appear to have desired to kill 
him with hardships and ill-usage, without actually dipping their 
hands in his blood. But he showed a strength both of body and 
mind that made this seem too slow a process, and therefore, on 
the 21st of September, 1327, whilst the young king was engaged 
in an inglorious campaign against the Scots, they put his father to 
death by horrible means that left no outward marks of violence. 
The murdered king was buried at Gloucester, where his very beau¬ 
tiful tomb still remains. 

§ 22. Both the reign and the character of Edward are com¬ 
monly misunderstood. Unlike his father, he readily pardoned 
offenders, such as Edward the First would not have suffered to 
live; and he seems never to have been guilty of the extortions and 
oppressions that marked the preceding reign. All the charges 
that his disaffected nobles brought against him only amount to 
this—that he did not keep over them the stem control to which 
they had been accustomed, and that he was profuse in rewarding 
the few whom he felt he could trust. The idea that Lancaster 
and his associates had any other view than personal aggran¬ 
dizement and revenge, is contradicted by all their acts, which 
were as clearly unlawful when they banished his ministers with- 

out a hearing/ as when they murdered them without 
» § 14, p. 201. . 

a trial. 

§ 23. A remarkable event in the reign of Edward was the sup¬ 
pression of the Order of Knights Templars, a piece of cruel in¬ 
justice in which the Pope and most of the sovereigns of Europe 
joined. These knights had a very humble beginning, in the year 
1118, when nine poor crusaders took upon themselves the obliga- 


205 


Chapter VIII.] THE PLANTAGENETS. 

The Order of the Knights Templars Suppressed. 

tion of protecting the faithful at Jerusalem. They had now 
obtained immense wealth and power. Their association included 
men of the noblest birth—natives of every Christian country. 
Their valor in battle, their wisdom in council, had long been the 
admiration of the world. 

§ 24. After the loss of the Holy Land the Templars forfeited 
much of their consideration, for they did not, like the Hospital¬ 
lers or Knights of St. John, secure an establishment in the East—- 
a real or fanciful bulwark to Christendom against the Moham¬ 
medans. The most odious charges were brought against them; 
but the real cause of their persecution was the covetousness of 
the monarchs who wanted their great wealth, and seized it. In 
France many of these knights were burnt alive. In England, 
where Almene, the master of the English Templars, stood side by 
side with the barons at Runnymead,* an advocate of 
the nation’s liberties, they were only imprisoned, and ^ 10, P ' 1G °* 
after a time they were placed in different monasteries. The Pope, 
in the year 1312, ordered their suppression, saying that he 
did not do this as pronouncing a judgment on their guilt, but 
merely as a matter of expediency. Their property he directed to 
be given over to the rival order of the Hospitallers, but this was 
only partially done, much of it being retained by the kings or 
their courtiers, who had enjoyed it for several years whilst the 
matter was being investigated, and would not part with it when 
it was decided. 


CHAPTER VIII. 

reign of Edward the Third. [a.d. 1327 to 1377.] 

§ 1. Edward the Third, sumamed “ of Windsor,” as we have 
observed, was only a little more than fourteen years of age when, 
on the 7tli of January, 1327, he was proclaimed b g O0 p 20 3 
king on the deposition of his father. b Parliament 
appointed a regency composed of noblemen, lay and ecclesiasti¬ 
cal ; and the Earl of Lancaster was chosen to be the guardian 
and protector of the king’s person. A year later Edward M as 



200 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book Y. 

Conduct o£ the Queen Mother and her Paramour. Their Fall. 

married [January 24, 1328] to Philippa of HaiDault, who proved 

to be an excellent and loving wife. 

§ 2. The first three years of the reign of Edward of Windsor 
were crowded with cruel and disgraceful events, for which he 
was not responsible.. Although a regency was formed, it was merely 
a pretence, as Queen Isabella and Mortimer a guided 
u§ 20 , p.204. everytMng at their will. First, the deposed king 
was put to death; next a peace was made with the Scots, when 
the English claims were abandoned for a sum of money, and a 
marriage was contracted between King Robert’s son, David, and 
Joan of the Tower, Isabella’s youngest daughter, both children of 
tender years ; and lastly the Earl of Kent was induced to believe 
that his brother was still alive. He had before this shown his dis¬ 
content with the revolution that he had helped to bring about, and 
he was now condemned and executed. 

§ 3. Meanwhile Mortimer was growing daily more and more 
unpopular. He had divided with the queen the forfeited estates 
of his opponents and the money he obtained from the Scots. He 
also received the title of Earl of March, and he appeared in pub¬ 
lic with kingly state. He even treated the young king with 
haughtiness, and became unbearably insolent to the nobles. In 
consequence a confederacy was at last formed against him. He 
was seized in Nottingham Castle and hurried to London, where 
he was imprisoned in the Tower. Soon afterward he was brought 
before the parliament, condemned unheard, as the De Spensers 
had been four years before, on the plea that his offences were too 
notorious to need proof, and was hanged at “ The Elms,’ on the 
29th of November, 1330. The queen mother was at least equally 
guilty, but her life was spared. She was sent to reside at Castle 
Rising, in Norfolk, as a prisoner ; but as years wore on (she sur¬ 
vived until 1357), the restrictions were relaxed, and she was only 
kept in what was termed “ free custody,” which allowed her to 
move about from one royal manor to another. The king, her 
son, paid her a visit of ceremony every year. 

§ 4. Whilst Edward was still under tutelage, his uncle, Charles 
the Fourth of France, died, and, unfortunately for both England 
and France, a claim on the crown was made for him in light of 
his mother, although, according to French law, no such claim 
could exist, the succession, by the Salic law, being limited to 
males. The States of the kingdom therefore passed it over, and 


207 


Chapter VIII.] THE PLANTAGENETS. 

War against France. War in Scotland. A weak King. 

bestowed the crown on Philip of Valois, the cousin of their late 
king. Edward gave way for the time, but afterwards urged his 
claim by force of arms, and thus gave rise to a period of misery 
and bloodshed which the French historians justly speak of as the 
Hundred Years’ War. There were several instances of truce, but 
these were ill observed, and the contest was not really closed until 
the time of Henry the Sixth. 

§ 5. King Robert of Scotland died soon after the treaty already 
mentioned, 11 and the crown devolved on his son 

a § 2, p. 206. 

David, a child of only seven years of age. The Earl 
of Douglas acted as regent. One condition of the treaty was, that 
knights and nobles whose Scottish lands had been forfeited in 
consequence of their adherence to the English cause should have 
them restored. This, however, the regent neglected to do, and in 
consequence Edward Baliol, the son of King John, applied to 
King Edward for redress. Several English nobles who were simi¬ 
larly placed joined with him; and when the king declined to 
engage in a new war for their sakes, they took the matter into 
their own hands. Collecting a body of about 2,000 men, the 
“ querellours,” as they were termed, sailed from the Humber, in 
the summer of 1332, and a few days afterward landed at King- 
hom, in Fifeshire. They marched at once to Perth, surprising 
and defeating a much larger body of Scots, whilst their ships 
gave an equally decisive overthrow to the Scottish fleet. In 
another month Baliol was crowned king at Scone, when he exe¬ 
cuted a charter declaring his feudal dependence on England. 
But before the year closed, he, in turn, was surprised and defeated, 
and had to flee for his life. He had won and lost a kingdom in 
the course of five months. 

§ 6. The Scots followed up their triumph by an inroad upon 
England, and the king was thus forced into war. He marched 
into Scotland [a.d. 1333], besieged Berwick, and defeated and 
killed Douglas, the regent, who attempted to relieve it, at Hali- 
don Hill. The town then surrendered, when Baliol was again 
acknowledged as king, and Edward retired. But Baliol s royalty 
was as fleeting as before. To repay Edward’s services, he granted 
to him all Scotland south of the Forth. This step united the 
whole nation against him, and he was speedily obliged to flee for 
safety to Berwick. Here he was soon joined by Edward, and for 
the three following years [a.d. 1335-1337] they overran the country, 


208 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book Y. 

Contemplated War with France. German and Flemish Allies. 

penetrating even as far as Inverness; but they could never again 
procure even a nominal submission to the vassal king, who had 
tried to dismember his country. 

§ 7. Edward at last got tired of this profitless war, and deter¬ 
mined to carry his arms against the King of France, who had not 
only assisted the Scots with men and money, but maintained their 
young king and queen at his court. In furtherance of this object, 
his first step was to gain the support of the Flemings, who were 
then bitter enemies of France, their count, whom they had ex¬ 
pelled, having been lately restored by his sovereign lord, the 
French king. He bought the aid of Jacob van Arteveldt, a 
brewer of.Ghent, one of the popular leaders, and who exercised 
almost unbounded sway over his countrymen. He was in posses¬ 
sion of more than sovereign authority, which he exercised with 
great wisdom. Edward hoped by his means to obtain Flanders 
for his eldest son, if he could not gain the crown of France for 
himself. To meet some pretended scruples of the Flemings, he 
took the title of King of France in 1337, but he did not assume 
the arms of that kingdom until three years after, when, also, he 
took the motto, “ Dieu et mon Droit God and my Right—which 

the Biitish sovereigns retain at the present day, though the claim 
to which it refers has long been abandoned. Being plentifully 
furnished with money he made an alliance with Louis, Emperor 
of Germany, who in return named him Vicar of the Empire. He 
also took intq his pay some of the minor German princes, but 
none of them were of any real service to him. On the other hand, 
the King of France called on his vassals, the dukes of Bnttany 
and Burgundy, and hired Scottish spearmen and Genoese cross¬ 
bowmen and Spanish mariners. The latter were the people of 
Biscay and Catalonia, hardy seamen, who hired out themselves 
and then* ships, and were formidable opponents to the English 
navy. He also obtained the services of John of Luxembourg, who 
was also King of Bohemia, and a renowned military commander. 

§ 8. When all was ready, Edward passed over to Flanders [a.d. 
1338], taking his queen and her court with him. The French 
opened the war by attacking Southampton, and Edward retaliated 
by ravaging the north of France; but his Flemish allies refused 
to leave their own cities, and the Germans quitted his army as 
soon as his treasure was exhausted. He went back to England to 
collect a fresh army, and in the mean time a powerful French fleet 


209 


Chapter VIII.] THE PLANTAGENETS. 

Great Naval Battle. France ravaged. Truce and War. 

put to sea, captured several large English ships, and then stationed 
themselves in the harbor of Sluys. Edward, when about to re¬ 
turn to Flanders, heard of the loss of his ships, among which was 
one called the Christopher, in which he had before crossed the 
sea, and he considered it a point of honor to retake it. Accord¬ 
ingly, though his fleet was much the smallest, he sailed from 
Ipswich, and on the 24th of June, 1340, he canie up w T ith the 
enemy. In the very front of their line he found the Christopher, 
filled with Genoese cross-bowmen, as were several other English 
prizes, the sight of which excited him, his nobles, and his men 
almost to madness, and all vowed to recapture them or perish. 

§ 9. The French ships were chained together, but, by standing 
a short distance out to sea, the English induced them to separate, 
and then turning on them, a desperate hand-to-hand fight ensued, 
which lasted all through the night, and ended in the total defeat 
of the French, with terrible slaughter. This was the greatest over¬ 
throw that the French navy had received since the time of King 
John, a and so decisive was it, that it took no further 

a § 1, p. 154. 

part in the war for full thirty years, and then only 
because the French had succeeded in obtaining aid from Spain. 
After this victory Edward again ravaged the French border, and 
also defied the king to single combat, styling him only Philip of 
Valois; but Philip declined to notice the challenge, and a truce 
for a year followed, which was afterwards prolonged for another 
year. 

§ 10. But before this second period had expired, the Duke of 
Brittany died [a.d. 1341], and two claimants for the duchy ap¬ 
peared. One was Charles of Blois, the nephew of the King of 
France, and the other was John de Montfort, the late duke’s half- 
brother. The King of France supported Charles, and Edward 
took part with John. At first Charles was successful, and Jane, 
the wife of his rival, was besieged by him in the castle of Henne- 
bon. She was almost reduced to despair, when she was relieved 
by a body of English troops led by Sir Walter Manny. Edward 
followed soon after, but another truce was agreed on. This was 
badly kept by the French, and the war soon broke out again. 
That was in the year 1344. 

§ 11. The Earl of Derby (afterwards Duke of Lancaster, whose 
daughter the king’s son, John of Ghent, or Gaunt, married, and 
received the duke’s title) marched into France from Guienne, and, 


210 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book Y. 

Battle of Crecy. The Scotch and their King. Surrender of Calais. 

some time after, Edward landed in Normandy, and ravaged the 
country almost to the gates of Paris. As the natuial result, pro¬ 
visions failed him, and he found himself obliged to retreat. He 
wished to reach the north of France, but he was on the south side 
of the Seine, and wherever he marched he found the bridges 
broken down. At length he succeeded in repairing the bridge at 
Poissy, and passed over, but a greatly superior French army fol¬ 
lowed his steps, when he halted at Crecy, near Abbeville, and 
determined to risk a battle. One soon followed [August 26, 
1346], when the French again received as great a defeat as at 
SluysA Edward, however, was too weak to follow 
a § 8, P . 208. ^ Mg advantage< instead, he continued his retreat; 

but on arriving on the sea-coast he laid siege to Calais, which he 
determined, if possible, to capture, as affording, from its position 
opposite to Dover, a convenient post for the invasion of France at 
any future time. 

§ 12. Whilst Edward was engaged at this siege, the Scots had 
invaded England; but an army got together by Queen Philippa 
totally defeated them at Neville’s Cross, near Durham, when 
David the Second (who was Edward’s brother-in-law) was taken 
prisoner. He had not long before returned from a ten years exile 
in France, and he now endured even a longer imprisonment in 
England. His captivity, however, was light, and having no 
children of his own, he endeavored to secure the crown of Scot¬ 
land for his nephew, Lionel of Antwerp, but the Scots absolutely 
refused to listen to the proposal. Lionel and John of Gaunt, or 
Ghent, were sons of Edward and Philippa, and were born in the 
respective cities which formed their surnames. 

§ 13. After a siege of eleven months Calais surrendered, when the 
inhabitants were removed, and the place was peopled by English. 
Froissart’s story that Eustace de St. Pierre and six other burgesses 
offered their lives for the pardon of the rest, but were set free on 
the intercession of Queen Philippa, seems to be a fable; but it is 
valuable as a proof of the kindness of Jieart that she possessed. 
The French attempted to regain Calais by treachery in 1349, 
but being foiled by the sudden arrival of the king, they gave up 
the contest as hopeless, and, though sometimes threatened, it was 
never seriously assailed by them until the Duke de Guise captured 
it in the reign of Queen Mary, more than 200 years afterwards. It 
was, indeed, regarded as “ the key of France,” and was quite as 


Chapter Yin.] THE PLANTAGENETS. 211 

Naval Battle. War in France. A bad Son-in-law. 

jealously guarded as “the Lock and Key of England,” Do¬ 
ver. a Not even the confusions of the War of the 
Roses could occasion any neglect of Calais; and the ^ P-161 ’ 
heavy charge that it brought on the royal treasury was always 
cheerfully borne. 

§ 14. For several years after the capture of Calais the war was 
mainly confined to Brittany; but in 1350 a great naval battle was 
fought with the Spaniards otf Winchelsea, where the king com¬ 
manded in person, and gained a complete victory. The Spanish 
fleet, which consisted of forty large vessels, had entered the Straits 
of Dover, and the king lay at Winchelsea, with his wife and his 
court, to await their return. Becoming impatient, he hurried on 
board, taking with him his sons Edward and John (the latter a 
lad of only ten years), and 400 of his bravest knights; and to 
amuse the sailors, he made his minstrels and his nobles sing and 
dance with them. At last, after three days’ watching, the 
Spaniards appeared. The king at once assailed them; and though 
his ship received so much damage that it soon sunk, he boarded 
his opponent and captured it. Prince Edward’s ship also was 
sunk, but he and his men were saved by his cousin, the Earl of 

Derby. b The fight lasted until night, when twenty- 

J & . . ° » § 11, p. 209. 

six of the Spanish ships being captured, and most of 

the rest destroyed, the English returned to land, and Edward, 

justly proud of his navy, took the title of “King of the Sea.” 

§ 15. The war continued in Brittany, but with such rapid 
changes of fortune that at length, in 1353, Edward offered to 
resign all claim to the French crown on having Guienne and 
Calais secured to him; but to this the King of France would not 
consent. Charles, King of Navarre, who is justly known as 
“ Charles the Bad,” now mixed in the quarrel, and the war broke 
out more' fiercely than before. Charles was son-in-law of King 
John the Good, of France; but this did not hinder his aiming, at 
least, at partitioning his father-in-law’s kingdom. Among his 
subjects were the renowned Biscayans, and by means of their ships 
he gained possession of several of the French seaports. One of 
these, Cherbourg, he strongly fortified, and then sold it to the Eng¬ 
lish, as he also did his support to the rival claimants, betraying them 
all in turn. The king made an inroad in the north of Franco 
at the same time that his son, Edward the Black Prince, marched 
unopposed across the south, from Bordeaux to Narbonne. 


212 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book V. 

Battle of Poitiers. English Victories. Ravages by Peasants. 

§ 16. The following year [1356] saw a worse calamity befall the 
French. Entertaining apparently too great contempt for his 
enemies, the Black Prince (as Edward’s son, Edward, was called 
from the color of his armor) marched northward, with the intent 
of joining his cousin Derby, now Duke of Lancaster, 4 
a§n, P . m who wag tQ advance from Normandy. But the 
country was so desolated already, that Lancaster was obliged to 
give up his part of the scheme. At last the Black Prince found 
himself at Poitiers, a full hundred miles from his own States, ab¬ 
solutely without provisions, and hemmed in by an army of five 
times his own number. In these circumstances he offered to give 
up an immense booty that he had gained, and to engage not to 
serve against the French for seven years. But they, reckoning 
the English at their mercy, insisted that the prince himself and 
one hundred of his knights should become their prisoners, intend¬ 
ing to propose to exchange them for Calais. The prince and his 
men preferred to try the chance of a battle, and the event justified 
them. They placed themselves behind intrenchments which they 
had hastily thrown up in the night, and the French, attacking 
them with headlong valor, but with no regard to the rules of war, 
were in a short time utterly defeated [Sept. 19th, 1356], and that 
too with even greater loss than at CrecyA King John 
b § n, p. .09. ^ -p rance anc j pj s young son Philip were taken 
prisoners after nearly losing then* lives in the fight. They met 
with the most courteous treatment both from the Black Prince 
and King Edward, but very hard terms were demanded for their 
release; and King John, not being able to fulfil them, died a cap¬ 
tive in London. 

§ 17. Though the battle of Poitiers was followed by a truce, 
this brought no relief to France. Almost every noble was now 
dead or a captive, and the peasantry took the opportunity to 
revenge many wrongs that had been inflicted by their lords. 
,Leaguing together in bands under leaders who all bore the 
assumed name of “Goodman James” (,Jacques Bonhomme ), they 
committed the most hideous atrocities, burning castles and towns, 
and murdering women, children, and priests. Nor w r as the com¬ 
motion suppressed until the English took arms against them. 
Then Charles the Bad claimed the crown of France, and Edward, 
after besieging Bheims in vain, made use of him to impose most 
humiliating terms of peace. By this, which is known as the 


THE PLANTAGENETS. 


213 


Chapter YIII.J 

Edward the Black Prince. Du Guesclin. War renewed. 

peace of Bretigny [a.d. I860], Edward, after all his victories, 
abandoned his claim to the crown of France, but, for a time, 
effected a partition of the kingdom; Gnienne, Poitou, Ponthieu, 
and a district around Calais being ceded to him, free from all 
feudal subjection. A vast sum—8,000,000 of golden crowns— 
was also to be paid for the ransom of the French king; but the 
impoverished land could not supply it, and, as before stated, he 
died a prisoner. Guienne and Poitou were erected into a State, 
called the Duchy of Aquitaine, which was bestowed on the Black 
Prince. He kept his court as a sovereign at Bordeaux, and there 
his son Richard was bom. 

§ 18. Thus the war with France, which, including some inter¬ 
vals of truce that were but badly observed, had now lasted more 
than twenty years, was brought to a close. But France itself was 
not to know peace, neither were the English conquests secure. 
Thousands of soldiers, who now found their old occupation gone, 
and cared not to turn to any other, formed themselves into what 
they termed “ free companies,” and filled France with robbery 
and murder from one end to the other. At last a famous Breton 
knight, named Bertrand du Guesclin (who became Constable of 
France), led them away into Spain, where they drove Peter the 
Cruel from his throne in 1365. Peter found a champion in 
Edward the Black Prince, who restored him, and also captured 
Du Guesclin; but his expedition brought about the loss of the 
greater part of the English conquests. Peter refused to pay the 
expenses of his restorer, and the prince, who had incurred heavy 
debts on his account, called upon his subjects for their aid. This 
they absolutely refused, saying that the war had not been under¬ 
taken either for their benefit or with their consent; and when the 
prince threatened them with his anger, they appealed to their 
former lord, the king of France. He (Charles the Fifth), though 
all feudal supremacy had been formally renounced, summoned 
the prince to Paris to answer for his conduct. The prince replied 
that he would come, but it should be at the head of an army; 
and accordingly the war once more broke out, in the year 1369. 

§ 19. By the advice of his parliament, Edward now resumed 
the title of King of France, which he had laid aside since the 
peace of Bretigny. ft But he was no longer fit to take a ^ p gl2 
the field, and everything was in favor of the French. 

The latter entered y the English provinces, where the inhabitants re- 


214 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book Y. 


Cruelty cf the English. Affairs in France. King Edward’s Death. 


ceived them joyfully; and the Black Prince, who had lost his 
health in his Spanish expedition, was no more able successfully 
to oppose them. Unfortunately for his fame, he recaptured 
Limoges, which had welcomed a French garrison, and barbarously 
put all the inhabitants to the sword. But this did not avail. The 
English lost ground day by day. Be Montfort was driven out of 
Brittany, and the Earl of Pembroke, the king’s son-in-law, was 
defeated and made prisoner at sea. 

§ 20. The aged king attempted a new invasion of France, but 
was forced back by bad weather, and Edward his son, the victor 
of Poitiers, a came to England to die. He lingered 
a § 16, P . 212 . for nearly four years, and during that time almost 

every place that he had conquered was retaken, Du Guesclin being 
a chief actor therein. The good Queen Philippa died some years 
before her son, and his father survived him only a single year. 


But the interval between his queen’s death and his own saw the 
king fall into the hands of unworthy favorites, who oppressed 
his people. His sons quarrelled with each other as to who should 
conduct the government, and almost his last hours were embit¬ 
tered by a fierce dispute in his presence between John Duke of 
Lancaster b and some London citizens, which promised 
b § ll, p. 209. for t | ie reign 0 f iq s grandson, Richard of Bor- 
e § n, p. 212 . ^ eaux c a child 0 f eleven years of age. At last, Alice 
Perrers, a worthless woman who had brought discredit on the 
king’s latter years, seeing the hand of death upon him, plucked 
the rings from his fingers, and left him to die without a single 
attendant. A priest, unsent for, found him, prayed with him, and 
closed his eyes. His death occurred at Shene (now called Rich¬ 
mond), on the 21st of June, 1377. 

§ 21. .King Edward is described as having enjoyed the regard of 
his people all through his long reign. He was remarkable for his 
skill in all knightly exercises, and delighted in tournaments, in 
which he often bore a patf, though usually in disguise; and, unlike 
his predecessors, he took great pains to gain and keep the good¬ 
will of the Londoners. On one occasion he invited them to a tour¬ 
nament, when he appeared as Lord Mayor, his sons Edward and 
Lionel as the sheriffs, and John and Thomas and several young 
nobles as aldermen. To a prince who thus flattered them, they 
never refused a loan or a subsidy. Although so much of his time 
was passed in war, he was a comparatively learned man, who 


Chapter VIII.] THE PLANTAGENETS. 215 

Edward’s Character and Power. A Revolution. Ravages of Plagues. 

spoke and wrote Latin and German, which proved very serviceable 
to him in his foreign wars and negotiations. Like his ancestors, he 
had often to confirm Magna Charta a as the price of a 

o 1 a § 16 p 160 

grant; but the law in his time began to be adminis¬ 
tered in English, the disuse of the Anglo-Norman French enabling 
the people to understand the language of the courts of law. That 
in itself was a considerable guarantee against oppression. 

§ 22. The war with France, which occupied so large a part of 
Edward’s reign, left him little beyond the empty title of king; but 
the result to his subjects was very different. In return for the 
money that they granted, he was obliged to concede so many 
valuable privileges that a revolution in government was effected, 
which was not the less real for being conducted without violence. 
In earlier times the burgesses had only to make grants, and humbly 
to petition for the redress of some very flagrant grievance; but 
before the close of Edward’s reign their position as one of the 
constituent parts of the State as represented by parliament, whose 
consent was necessary to every enactment, was almost as fully 
recognized as at present. His connection with the Flemings, then 
the great commercial and manufacturing people of Europe, led 
him to bring the clothing trade to England, and from this, and 
the commerce to which it gave rise, soon sprang an opulent 
middle class that eventually became powerful enough to modify 
the purely warlike policy of former ages, and to cause peaceful 
pursuits to be preferred to mere aggressive wars like his, which 
sought to bring under one rule two nations that had really little 
in common, and whose union could not be other than disastrous 
to both. 

§ 23. The calamities of war were terribly aggravated, on three 
several occasions during Edward’s reign, by plagues which rav¬ 
aged most parts of Europe, but were especially fatal in England 
in the yearn 1349, 1361, 1362, and 1369. The first took its rise in 
the heart of China, swept across the greatdesert of Cobi and the 
wilds of Tartary, and made its way to Europe through the Levant^ 
Egypt, and Greece. It appeared in London in November, 1348. 
These plagues are recorded by chroniclers as the 1 irst, the Second, 
and the Third Great Pestilences; and such a deep impression did 
they leave on the minds of the people that charters and other 
documents were long after dated from them. So great was the 
number of dead that the churchyards could not contain them, 


216 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book Y. 

Dislike of the Papal Power. Wickliffe. Lollards. Edward’s Sons. 

and fresh burial-grounds had to be provided. To these a monas¬ 
tery was often added, and two of the most famous religious houses 
in London thus originated. These were the Charter-House, founded 
just beyond the city walls by Sir Walter Manny, a a 
a § 10, p. 209. renowncd so i d i er5 an d the Abbey of St. Mary Grace, 
near the Tower, which the king built in a cemetery provided by 
John Corey, a London citizen. It is said that one-half of the 
population of London was swept away. On the Continent, cities 
and villages were depopulated. 

§ 24. One remarkable feature of Edward’s reign was the grow¬ 
ing dislike to the abuses of the papal power, and several statutes 
were passed to repress them. This was incident to the great intel¬ 
lectual awakening then in progress. The power that had been 
long exercised of placing foreigners in English benefices had been 
loudly complained of before, but it was now considered danger¬ 
ous, as the Popes no longer resided in independence at Rome, but 
held their court at Avignon, under the control of the Kings of 
France. Therefore in 1351 and 1353 these “provisions” (as they 
were termed) were forbidden, and any one who appealed to the 
Pope’s courts was subjected to heavy punishment. 

§ 25. At about the same time John Wickliffe, a preacher at Ox¬ 
ford, published a book called “ The Last Age of the Church, in 
which he inveighed loudly against the avarice of the papal court, 
denounced the clergy as too often scandalous in their lives, and 
asserted that the civil magistrate, and not the Pope, ought to be 
the supreme ruler in all matters. He was denounced as a heretic, 
but he gained many followers, who, under the name of Lollards, 
caused much confusion in after days. They went beyond their 
master, for they disclaimed the power of the magistrate alto¬ 
gether, and held other doctrines which were regarded as incom¬ 
patible with the safety of the State. They were often severely 
punished, but they continued to exist until the Reformation, when 
their name was lost. Wickliffe has been called the “Morning- 
star of the Reformation.” He translated the Bible into the Eng¬ 
lish tongue, and in various ways administered to the spiritual 
wants of the people. 

§ 26. Of the king’s sons all (except Edmund of Langley) who 
lived to manhood were marked by energy and talent. 

b § 16, p. 212. Edward, the eldest, better known as the Black 
Prince^ has been handed down .by the chroniclers as the “mil’- 


THE PLANTAGENETS. 


Chapter IX.] THE PLANTAGENETS. 217 

Chivalry. Prominent Characters. King Richard and John of Gaunt. 

ror of chivalry,” and no doubt he was so, when kings, or nobles, 
or ladies were concerned; but his “gentle pity,” which they 
praise, went no lower, as his unwilling subjects of Guienne ex¬ 
perienced. In fact chivalry never stooped to do good to the 
“common people’’—the “low-born.” It was thoroughly aristo¬ 
cratic in practice, and looked with contempt upon all below the 
nobility. Lionel of Antwerp, a the ancestor of the 
House of York, was twice lieutenant of Ireland, and 
the Statutes of Kilkenny, which were intended to reduce the 
Anglo-English lords to obedience, were enacted in his time. John, 
whose son Henry became king, succeeded his brother Edward in 
the government of Aquitaine, b marching unopposed 
through Fiance to reach it. Through his marriage 
with the daughter of Peter the Cruel of Spain, he laid claim to 
the crown of Castile, but was defeated in his efforts to obtain it. 
Thomas, as Earl of Buckingham and Duke of Gloucester, was a 
very prominent character in the reign of his nephew, Richard IL 
Edmund of Langley, who was created Duke of York, was only 
remarkable for having been left regent of the kingdom on 
Richard’s last visit to Ireland, and the readiness with which he 
abandoned his trust to join the party of Henry of Lancaster. 


1 § 12, p. 210. 


b § 17, p. 212. 


CHAPTER IX. 

reign of Richard the Second, [a.d. 1377 to 1399.] 

§ 1. The reign of Richard of Bordeaux c was begun on the 
23d of June, 1377, the day after his grandfather’s o ^ 
death; and on the 16th of July he was crowned at 
Westminster Abbey. He was then a little more than eleven years 
of age. The coronation ceremony was unusually splendid, and 
the poor boy was so exhausted by it that he had to be carried on 
a litter to his apartment. The most abject adulation followed, 
from bishops and barons. 

§ 2. During the latter years of the reign of Edward IH. the 
government was in the hands of John of Gaunt, d g 1;I p 209 
Duke of Lancaster, d a man of great talent, but very 
unpopular. In right of his wife, Constance, the daughter of 
10 



21$ HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book Y. 

Lancaster’s Assumptions. Quarrels. The English Na y. 

Peter tire Cruel, he styled himself “John King of Castile and 
Leon,” and he was, beside, suspected of aiming at the English 
crown, to the prejudice of his young nephew :Rich*ird of Bor¬ 
deaux. His proceedings were strongly opposed by the chancellor, 
William of Wykeham, Bishop of Winchester, and by Sir Peter de 
la Mare, a Herefordshire knight, who possessed so much influence 
in the parliament that he is usually regarded as the first Speaker of 
the House of Commons. The duke, however, proved too strong 
for them, deprived the bishop of both office and goods and nn- 
prisoned the knight in one of the royal castles. But these steps 
were deeply resented by many, and by none more than by the 
citizens of London, who had now grown so wealthy by their com¬ 
merce that they formed, in reality, an independent power, whose 
support was eagerly sought by all parties. Hence, when they 
waited on the young prince to acknowledge him as king, 0 
haughty Lancaster consented to seek a reconciliation with them, 
hoping through this to be appointed regent. 

§ 3. But the distrust of the wily duke by the people was uni¬ 
versal and deep, and in this feeling the parliament fully shared ; 
therefore the government was committed to a council of nine 
persons, at the head of which was Courtenay, Bishop of London, 
who had been personally insulted by the duke in his own cathe¬ 
dral when examining Wickliffe on a charge of heresy. Lancaster 
loudly complained of the slight, and challenged an inquiry into 
his past conduct; but as this was disregarded, he professed to 
withdraw from all concern in public affairs. He, however, gained 
over some members of the council to his views, and their conten¬ 
tions with their colleagues led to a shameful neglect of the de¬ 
fence of the kingdom. In this extremity one of the citizens of 
London took the bold step of fitting out a fleet of his own to 
cruise against pirates, a certain proof of the weakness of the gov¬ 


ernment. , 

§ 4. As the conquests of Edward the Third and his son were 

almost all lost before their deaths, so the naval power of England 
now o-ave way to that of France. In 1372 an English fleet, whilst 
attempting to relieve Rochelle, was totally defeated, and its com¬ 
mander, the Earl of Pembroke, a taken prisoner, 
a § 19, p. 213. rpj 10ll gh he was the king’s son-in-law, he was allowed 
to die a captive in the hands of the French. At length, just after 
the accession of Richard, England in turn was exposed to invasion. 


Chapter IX.] THE PLANTAGENETS. 219 

A Patriotic Citizen. The French Army. The English in France. 

§ 5. The French had now fully recovered their power at sea, and 
having the Spaniards and Scots in league with them, they not only 
captured many English ships, but ravaged the Isle of Wight and 
burnt almost every seaport town between Plymouth and Rye. 
Then it was that John Philpot, an alderman of Lon¬ 
don, a fitted out several ships at his own cost, and cap- ^ P ~ 18 ‘ 
tured Mercer, a Scottish pirate; but he was called before the 
council, and severely censured for having acted thus before he had 
obtained lawful authority. He replied, with spirit, that he had 
not sent his ships anct men to the danger of the seas to win for 
liimself the praise of chivalry, but to do what he might to save 
his country from the ruin which their neglect of the navy threat¬ 
ened to bring about. “To this reproach,” says the chronicler, 
“ they had nothing to answer, for they knew that they were more 
intent on quarrelling among themselves than on the public good: ” 
and so much were they distrusted by the parliament that the 
funds granted to fit out a fleet were placed, not in their hands, 
but under the management of Philpot and another citizen, Wil¬ 
liam Walworth. 

§ 6. The fleet thus equipped captured Brest; and Cherbourg 
was delivered to them by Charles the Bad. The French navy, 
however, was still far the most powerful, and in revenge they 
ravaged the southern coast of England, and, sailing up the Thames, 
burnt Gravesend. On the other hand, the Earl of Buckingham 
(the king’s uncle) marched through France from Calais to Brit¬ 
tany, but he was very coldly received by the Duke, who soon 
afterward made his submission to the King of France. On this 
the English troops returned greatly dissatisfied, and clamorous 
for their pay. To raise the necessary sum a most unjust scheme 
was resorted to, and the consequence was the formidable rising of 
the common people which bears the name of Wat Tyler’s re¬ 
bellion. 

§ 7. This scheme was the imposition of a poll-tax of three groats 
(equal to at least fifteen shillings at the present day) on rich and 
poor alike, if above the age of fifteen. Quite as heavy taxes had 
been paid in the preceding reign without a murmur, as they were 
only imposed on the comparatively wealthy landlords and mer¬ 
chants. The latter usually gained some valuable privilege in ex¬ 
change, and the former class could and did, under the feudal 
system, repay themselves by exactions from their tenants. These, 


220 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book Y. 

. . , An Outraee Wat Tyler s Rebellion. 

A Poll-tax resisted. An outrage. 


§ 26, p. 92. 


yillani a —unless tHey fled from their holdings and 
gained the shelter of some borough town, were little 

better than slaves. 1 . o1 

r 8 Lone before the breaking out of the insurrection here al¬ 
luded to, these “poor commons” had begun to form assoc^ions 
for making a united stand against too grievous oppression. Though 
these associations were prohibited by the parliament they were not 
suppressed, and many of the landowners found it to their advan¬ 
tage to sell certain privileges to their villeins, in the same way as 
the kings sold privileges to the towns. And so it came about tha 
there were now found men, banded together all over the country, 
who at once resolved to oppose so iniquitous a scheme as this 
poll-tax, which they regarded as expressly devised to spare the 

"T 1 * The effect was soon seen. Though the rich paid the small 
sum asked of them, the poor refused; and as the money was ur¬ 
gently wanted for the soldiers, the council unwisely took a loan 
from some foreign merchants, and intrusted them with the col- 
lection These men and their agents behaved with great brutality 
and insolence, and even tried to extort the tax for girls under the 
prescribed age. One fellow acting thus, in the most insulting 
manner, with the daughter of Walter, a tiler at Hartford, was 
killed on the spot by her father. His neighbors flew to arms to 
protect him, and all over the country bands were formed, the 
leaders of which, as an earnest of their intentions, took the name 
of Walter the Tiler, or Wat Tyler. Walter himself became a 

principal leader in the movement. 

§ 10. Even before this rising the collectors had been opposed in 
Essex; and when Sir Robert Belknap, a judge, was sent as a com¬ 
missioner of trailbaton, , 2 3 * to enforce obedience, he was obliged to 
flee for his life, whilst some of his “jurors” 8 were seized and 
beheaded. The commons now demanded the abandonment of 

1 A villein who had dwelt for a year and a day in a town, unclaimed by his lord, be¬ 
came free so far; but he was not admitted to the privileges of the town, and could not 
rise above the grade of a mere laborer, or carry on a trade on his own account. 

2 The issuing of such a commission was, in reality, much the same as the proclama¬ 
tion of martial law, the parties intrusted with it being empowered to try and punish 
offenders at discretion; and the power was usually exercised with great rigor. 

3 These jurors must not he regarded as the same as the jurors of the present day. 

They were witnesses for the crown, or informers, and hence their unpoptilanty. 


Chapter IX.] THE PLANTAGENETS. 221 

A Popular Insurrection. Bad Advice followed. The King in danger. 

the tax, and the grant of charters from the long freeing them from 
the absolute dependence on their lords, to which they had been 
reduced. If their demands had been granted, they still would not 
have been half so free as Englishmen at the present day; but all 
concession was haughtily refused, and a terrible scene followed. 

§ 11. Just at this time Sir Simon Burley, one of the royal 
household, heard that one of the villeins of his estate was dwelling 
in the town of Gravesend, and he was unwise enough to go there 
himself, seize him as his bondsman, and imprison him in Roches¬ 
ter Castle. The commons at once rose, taking a “Wat Tyler” as 
their chief, and being joined by a party from Essex, whose leader 
was called Jack Straw, they stormed the castle and set the man at 
liberty. Many other jails were emptied of their prisoners. Among 
the actors in these scenes was a friar named John Ball, who is 
accused of inciting them to murder the nobles and gentry, by 
preaching sermons which began and ended with a rude couplet— 

“ When Adam delved and Eve span, 

Who was then the gentleman ? ” 

The poor people unhappily acted up to the advice, and so they 
converted what was at first a righteous protest against flagrant 
injustice into a scene of plunder and murder, which compelled all 
above their own degree to take arms against them in self-defence. 
Thus Bishop Spenser, of Norwich, who was a far better soldier 
than bishop, put down and severely punished a rising in his own 
diocese, at the head of which was an artisan called John the Litster 
(or Dyer), who murdered many knights and gentlemen, and com¬ 
pelled others to wait on him with kingly state as the price of 
their lives. 

§ 12. The commotions began in April, 1881, and by the middle 
of June vast bodies of rustics from Kent and Surrey forced their 
way over the bridge into London, where great numbers of the 
poorer citizens joined them. Others, from Essex, encamped at 
Mile-end. The young king and his great officers had, in the mean 
time, taken refuge in the Tower, which was soon beset by the 
multitude, who clamored alike for charters of freedom and for the 
heads of the Duke of Lancaster, the chancellor, the treasurer, and 
many others. Whilst some watched the Tower, so that none could 
escape, the rest divided into parties, who murdered tax-collectors 
and foreigners, and burnt the duke’s stately palace of the Savoy, 
the Priory of St. John of Jerusalem, and the Temple, as well as 


002 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book V. 

The Insurgents in London. Death of Wat Tyler. Concessions. 

all the bonds and records that they could lay hold of, considering 
them as the instruments of their servitude. But whilst they acted 
thus barbarously they forbore to plunder. Instead, they beat to 
dust Lancaster’s costly gold and silver plate; and one man, who 
was seen to hide a silver vessel in his bosom, was hurled into the 
fire with his prize, his fellows crying, “We be zealous for truth 
and justice, and are not thieves or robbers.” 

§ 13. On the second day of their tumultuous possession of Lon¬ 
don, the young king went out to Mile-end, and granted all the 
demands (including pardon) of the Essex insurgents, who there¬ 
upon began their return to the country. But in the mean time the 
Kentish men had entered the Tower, where they seized the chan¬ 
cellor and treasurer, and beheaded them on Tower-Hill. The suf¬ 
ferers were Simon of Sudbury, Archbishop of Canteibury, and Sii 
Robert Hales, the Lord Prior of the Knights of St. John. On the 
following day the insurgents assembled in Smithfield, and the 
king went thither to meet them, being prepared to grant the 
same franchises and pardons to them as he had done to the Essex 
men. But their leader, who was styled “Wat Tyler of Maid¬ 
stone” (the original Walter whose daughter was in- 
a § 9, p. 220. gulted a^ rose in Pis demands, and behaved in so 
threatening a manner that the king’s attendants were alarmed for 
the sovereign’s life. A quarrel at once ensued, when Wat was 
brought to the ground by a fatal blow from William Walworth, 
the Mayor of London. The young king was in imminent danger 
of death from the insurgents, but he had the address to ride in 
among them, and persuade them to follow him into the fields at 
Islington, where he granted their charters; and on the appearance 
of a large body of well-armed men from the city they dispersed 
without further mischief. 

§ 14. But though the charters had been granted, it was by no 
means the intention of the king’s councillors to adhere to them. 
On the contrary, all the military tenants of the crown were ordered 
to assemble, as if against a foreign enemy, when the charters were 
revoked as extorted by force, and special commissioners visited 
every countv from Somersetshire to Yorkshire, who, under the pro¬ 
tection of strong bodies of troops, tried and executed above 1,500 
persons. 

§ 15. The skill and courage show by the young king in dealing 
with the insurgents led to the expectation that he would prove a 


Chapter IX.] THE PLANTAGENETS. 223 

Richard and his Ministers. He declares his Successor. Claims to the Crown. 

wise and vigorous ruler, but such did not prove to be the case. In 
the following year [a.d. 1382] he married a German princess, who, 
from her constant striving to reconcile the jealous nobles who 
formed her husband’s court, received, deservedly, the name of “the 
Good Queen Anne.” Richard resembled his predecessor Edward the 
Second in his light, careless disposition, and, like him, he left the 
affairs of the kingdom to his ministers, of whom two especially 

enjoyed his confidence, and were as fatal to him as 

J J 7 a § 2 p 196 

Gaveston and De Spenser a had been to his ancestor. 

These were Michael de la Pole, the son of a wealthy merchant of 
Hull, who became chancellor, and was created Earl of Suffolk; and 
Robert de Yere, Earl of Oxford, who received the dukedom of Ire¬ 
land. The king’s uncles were strongly opposed to the proceedings 
of these men, who wasted on court pageants the sums that they 
wished to see devoted to the war, and thus John of b ^ ^ 

Gaunt b gained a strong party in London, where John * ’ P ' ~ 

of Northampton, the mayor, was his friend. When his year of office 
was out, however, John was seized and imprisoned, and various 
charges were brought against the duke; but he retired to his castle 
of Pontefract, and a civil war was only averted by the intercession 
of the queen mother, in the year 1384. 

§ 16. The king next declared Roger Mortimer, Earl of March, 
heir presumptive to the throne. Then Lancaster *made a claim 
to it in favor of his own son, who afterwards became king as 
Henry the Fourth. This was disregarded, and the duke then 
undertook an expedition to Spain to assert his right to the crown. 
He was unsuccessful, losing the greater part of his army from 
sickness. The matter was eventually settled by his giving his 
daughter Catherine in marriage to Henry the son of his rival. 
During his absence the Earl of Buckingham had driven out the 
Earl of Suffolk and the Duke of Ireland, who both died in exile, 
and he himself, receiving the title of Duke of Gloucester, became 
the head of a new council of regency [a.d. 1386], which exercised 
all the powers of government, although the king was no longer a 
minor, being then twenty years of age. 

§ 17. Richard bore this tutelage for a while, but having privately 
obtained the opinion of some of the judges that the commission of 
regency was illegal, he prepared to shake it off. He was, how¬ 
ever, anticipated by Gloucester, who seized the Tower, and then, in 
what was called “the Wonder-working Parliament” [a.d. 1388], 


224 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book V. 


Gloucester’s Tyranny. End of his Power. 


War with Scotland. 


he procured the condemnation of many of his opponents as traitors, 
when several of them were executed, and others banished. Among 
those executed was that Sir Simon Burley already 
a § 11, P. 221. mentioned} a for whom “ the Good Queen Anne” made 

supplication on her knees to Gloucester, but in vain. The regent 
behaved so insolently that he alienated many of his supporters, of 
which the king took advantage, and, by what would now be termed 

a coup d'etat, drove him from power. , , 

§ 18 This was the end of Gloucester’s power. Richard entered 
the council on the 3d of May, 1389, and smilingly inquired if 
any record existed to show the time of his birth. This was soon 
produced, and when read aloud gave the date as April 3, 1366. 
“ Then am I twenty-three years of age,” cried Richard; and turn¬ 
ing to Gloucester, he added, “and surely I am old enough, fair 
uncle, to govern without your help.” Gloucester was too much 
surprised to make any reply, and he and all his friends were at 
once driven from the court, when William of Wykeham again 
became chancellor. The Duke of Lancaster returned to England 
soon afterward, and by his means the king and his uncle Glouces¬ 
ter were formally reconciled, though, as was afterwards seen, each 


hated and distrusted the other. 

§ 19. Whilst these contentions were carried on but too actively 
in England, the war was allowed to languish both in Scotland 
and in France, consisting of little more than desultory inroads 
that did great damage to each country, and brought on fierce 
reprisals, but had no effect in achieving a conquest or producing 
an honorable peace. Almost at the beginning of Richard’s reign 
the Scots burnt Roxburgh (then an English fortress) and captured 
Berwick; but this was soon retaken by Percy, then newly created 
Earl of Northumberland. In 1381 Lancaster invaded Scotland, 
and thereby probably saved his life, as it was during this ab¬ 
sence that his palace of the Savoy was burnt by the 
b § n ’ p - m rioters; b and in 1385 the king himself led an army 
thither, and burnt Edinburgh. With these exceptions the war 
seems to have been mainly conducted by the northern nobles, 
foremost among whom were the Earl of Northumberland and his 
son, whose activity has gained him the well-known name of Harry 
Hotspur. The most memorable of the various battles fought in 
that war was that of Otterbum, in Northumberland [a.d. 1388], 
where Douglas, the Scottish leader, was killed, and Hotspur taken 


THE PLANTAGENETS. 


225 


Chapter IX. J 

Affairs in France A Treasonable Insurrection defeated. 

prisoner. Tlie ancient ballad of Chevy Chase is founded on this 
remarkable encounter, which is made to appear as a foray of hunt¬ 
ers on Douglas’s domain, and opposed by him and his retainers. 

§ 20. The war with France, after the Duke of Brittany had aban¬ 
doned the cause, was far less eventful. The French, in 1385, and 
again in 1386, threatened an invasion; but in each instance bad 
weather prevented their leaving their ports. In 1387 the Earl of 
Arundel gave them a great defeat near Sluys, which almost ruined 
their navy, and thenceforward they only showed their hostility by 
sending succors to the Scots. At length truces were made from 
year to year, which, in 1396, were followed by the king (whose 
queen had died two years before) marrying Isabella, the daughter 
of the French king, though she was only in her ninth year. As 
the price of this alliance Brest and Cherbourg were given up, and 
a report was spread that the Channel Islands and Calais would also 
be surrendered. This rendered the king very unpopular, and the 
Duke of Gloucester resumed his treasonable designs, which speedily 
resulted in his own death. 

§ 21. When the Duke of Lancaster came home, he found his 
brother, the Duke of Gloucester, had in reality possessed himself 
of the government. Jealousy arose between them, and in conse¬ 
quence Lancaster now gave his support to the king. As a reward 

the duchy of Aquitaine a was bestowed on him, and 

J ^ a § 17, p. 212. 

his natural children were legitimated. One of them, 

called John Beaufort, was the ancestor of the dukes of Somerset, 
who fought so strenuously on the Lancastrian side in the War of 
the Roses. This favor to one who was now his avowed opponent 
induced Gloucester to plan a rising against the king, in which the 
Archbishop of Canterbury and the Earls of Arundel and Warwick 
pledged themselves to take part. But their scheme became known, 
and the king, acting with unwonted vigor, at the instigation of his 
half-brother, the Earl of Huntingdon, went himself by night to 
Pleshey, near Chelmsford, which was the duke’s seat, and there 
seized Gloucester, who was hurried off to Calais and thrown into 
prison. The others were also seized, and a parliament assembled 
for their trial. When it met, it was announced that Gloucester 
had died in prison after making a full confession of his offences, 
and urgently praying for the mercy that he had never shown him¬ 
self. The matter was then no further inquired into. Arundel 
and Warwick were condemned to death [a.d. 1397]; but Arundel 
10 * 


226 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book Y. 

Royal Favors. Dangers removed. Unfortunate Visit to Ireland. 

only was executed. The archbishop (who was brother to Arundel) 
was banished, and taking up his residence in France, he became 
the mainspring of the revolution that soon after deprived Richard 
of his throne. 

§ 22. At first everything proceeded as the king wished. He 
gave higher titles to several nobles who had assisted him against 
Gloucester. The Earl of Derby (John of Gaunt’s eldest son) was 
made Duke of Hereford; and the Earl of Huntingdon, Duke of 
Exeter. The Earl of Nottingham, who was also earl marshal, and 
had been Gloucester’s keeper, received the title of Duke of Nor¬ 
folk. Then removing the parliament to Shrewsbury, the king 
procured from it a reversal of the acts of the “Wonder-working 
Parliament.” a Many of the actors in that assembly 
“ § 17 ’ p> m W ere condemned to heavy fines and forfeitures, and 
the royal treasury was thus greatly enriched. But scarcely had 
the parliament separated when a quarrel broke out between the 
Dukes of Hereford and Norfolk, and, according to the custom of 
the time, a combat was ordered between them, as each charged the 
other with falsehood and treason. 1 The combat was stopped at 
the moment that the dukes were mounted, lance in hand, and both 
were banished in the year 1398. Norfolk died about a year after¬ 
ward, but Hereford lived to become king. 

§ 23. His enemies thus dispersed, Richard went to Ireland with 
a large army, his cousin, the Earl of March, who was the next heir 
to the throne, b having been killed there in the pre- 
<> § 16, P . 223. c8ding year He i iac [ visited Ireland five years before, 
and had found the people in general very willing to submit to his 
authority. Such was also the case now, but his going lost him his 
crown. When the Duke of Hereford was banished, the king 
promised him that he should succeed to the duchy of Lancaster in 
case of his father’s death; but hearing that the duke consorted in 
France with the banished archbishop, the sons of the late Duke of 
Gloucester and Earl of Arundel, and other malcontents, he re¬ 
called his promise. Hereford on this repaired to Brittany, and 
equipping a small fleet sailed for England, the archbishop and 
the young Earl of Arundel accompanying him. He landed at 

i Norfolk was believed to have put Gloucester to death on his own authority as earl 
marshal; but Hereford charged him with saying that he had acted by the order of the 
king, who designed thus to get rid of others of the nobility. Norfolk denied the 
speech, and challenged his accuser to justify himself in knightly fashion. 


Chapter IX.] THE PLANTAGENETS. 227 

A Revolution in England. The King dethroned. His mysterious Disappearance. 

Ravenspur, in. Yorkshire, in July, 1399, professing that he came 
merely to claim his inheritance. But this pretext was soon 
dropped. The great Earls of Northumberland and Westmoreland 
joined him, as did his uncle the Duke of York soon after, though 
he was regent of the kingdom. Then he marched to Bristol, where 
he seized and executed the Earl of Wiltshire, who had been an 
actor in the condemnation of Gloucester and his friends, and soon 
afterward he openly claimed the throne. 

§ 24. Bad weather for a while prevented Richard’s return from 
Ireland, and almost immediately on his landing he was deserted 
by the greater part of his troops, his steward, the Earl of Worces¬ 
ter (Northumberland’s brother), setting the example by breaking 
his wand of office and declaring the royal household dismissed. 
Soon afterward he was betrayed into the hands of the new Duke of 
Lancaster, who brought him to London, where, in a parliament 
that was immediately assembled, a renunciation of the throne by 
him was read, and he was deposed, one man alone, Bishop Merks 
of Carlisle, having the courage to protest against his being con¬ 
demned unheard. But this protest was disregarded, 
and Henry of Lancaster, the Duke of Hereford, 11 was ‘ § 22, P ' 22G ' 
placed on the throne by the Archbishops of Canterbury and York, 
and declared king. 

§ 25. And so Richard was dethroned. Of his after life very lit¬ 
tle is known. The parliament shortly afterward ordered him to be 
“kept secretly in safe ward,” and he was removed from the Tower 
to Leeds Castle, in Kent. Thence he was taken to Pontefract Cas¬ 
tle, and there he is usually said to have died, either itiurdered by 
his keeper, Sir Piers Exton, or starved to death. A body that was 
said to be his was shown at St. Paul’s shortly after his deposition, 
and was afterwards buried at Langley, but no account of how ha 
came by his death was given. There is reason for believing that 
he escaped from Pontefract, and lived nearly twenty years after¬ 
wards in Scotland, in a state of mental imbecility. 

§ 26. But whatever was the date or the mode of Richard’s death, 
his fate was a most unhappy one. All through his reign his am¬ 
bitious uncles struggled for power, and, though affecting a kind 
of guardianship, not one of them endeavored to fit him for the 
high position to which he came so young. Though he occasion¬ 
ally showed gleams of spirit and courage worthy of his father and 
grandfather, he was evidently luxurious and indolent, and but too 


228 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book V. 

Character of Richard the Second. The Papal Power in England. 

willing to leave tlie cares of government to any who would under¬ 
take them. 

§ 27. In his personal character Richard the Second was mild and 
gracious, and though, at the instigation of others, he proceeded 
with severity against his uncle the Duke of Gloucester, he was 
placable to the other conspirators, and showed himself far more 
merciful than they were when their circumstances were reversed. 
By his immediate attendants he was evidently much beloved, but 
by his want of warlike activity he offended alike his martial nobles, 
who longed for fresh conquests in France and Scotland, and the 
rich merchants, who looked for fresh concessions from the crown 
in return for their loans. But Richard’s advisers saw how much 
the royal power had been limited through his grandfather’s cease¬ 
less wars and consequent want of money, and therefore they strove 
for peace, a course that suited his own inclination, but which cost 
him both his throne and his life. 


CHAPTER X. 

SOCIETY FROM THE YEAR 1200 TO THE YEAR 1400. 

§ 1. There was very little change in the aspects of Christianity 
in England during the reigns of the kings from John to Henry of 
Lancaster, a period of about two hundred years. We have seen 
how strong was the papal authority during all that time. The 
Roman pontiffs asserted their supremacy over all potentates and 
powers with imperious will and imperial strength. In no country 
were their exactions and encroachments in the thirteenth century 
more frequent than in England. The natural good-nature and 
superstition of the people made them quietly submit, while their 
insular separation from the rest of Europe, and their wealth, con¬ 
curred with political circumstances in making England the great 
field of Papal imposition and plunder. It was not until the reign 
of Edward the Third that the people of England openly expressed 
their dislike of the growing abuses of that power. a 

« §24, p.216. From time of Boniface VIII. [1294], who pro¬ 
claimed that “ God had set him over kings and kingdoms,” and 
laid France and Denmark under interdict, a general feeling of 



Chapter X.] THE PLANTAGENETS. 229 

The Papal Revenue from England. The Church there. Wickliffe. 

resentment existed; and, as has been said, “slowly, like the retreat 
of waters, or the stealthy pace of old age, that extraordinary power 
over human opinion has been subsiding for five centuries.” 

§ 2. In the year 1376 the Commons, a in a remonstrance to the 
king against the extortions of the court of Rome, a § 21 p 179 
affirmed that the taxes yearly paid to the Pope by 
the people of England amounted to five times as much as all the 
taxes paid to the crowh. Gregory the Ninth alone, in the course 
of a few years, drew from England, in various ways, a sum equal 
to £15,000,000, or $75,000,000. The ecclesiastics were the crea¬ 
tures of the pontiffs, and the church in England was the conduit 
through which these treasures flowed into the coffers of the Pope. 
Nearly one-half of the soil of England was in the possession of 
the church; and all of the richest benefices were in the hands of 
Italian and other foreign priests. The Pope also claimed and ex¬ 
ercised the power of making and abrogating laws, and releasing 
men from their most solemn oaths. The priest was everywhere 
omnipotent, and all England swarmed with monks of various 
orders. All the high civil offices were filled with ecclesiastics, and 
military leaders were frequently bishops. Public worship was cere¬ 
monial, and religion as a sentiment of the heart was little known. 

§ 3. It was during this period that the English reformer, John 
Wickliffe, b appeared. His name was derived from the b § ^ p 216 
Yorkshire parish in which he was bom, about the 
year 1324. He was an eminent student at Oxford; and at the age 
of thirty-one he issued a treatise entitled, “ Of the Last Age of the 
Church,” in which he trenchantly assailed the prevailing notions 
concerning the authority of the Pope. He then attacked some of 
the monastic orders, and even the doctrines of the church. He 
denounced twelve classes of religious orders, beginning with the 
Pope and ending with the mendicant friars, as antichrists and 
“proctors of Satan; ” he traced the corruptions of the church to 
the profusion of wealth with which it had been endowed; and he 
drew a parallel between the poverty and humility of the apostles 
and the wealth and arrogance of their pretended successors in his 
day. Though he received the countenance and support of the 
most powerful of the nobility, he suffered persecution. His 
stormy life ended on the 31st of October, 1384. 

§ 4. Wickliffe’s fundamental position was, like that of Luther 
a long time afterward, that the knowledge of the revealed will oc 


230 * HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book Y. 

Wickliffe’s Doctrine. Representative Government established. The Statutes. 

God was to be found in the Holy Scriptures only, not by the church 
alone, or its authorized heads, but by every earnest-seeking indi¬ 
vidual. Before his time portions of the Scriptures had been 
translated into the English tongue, but they were almost wholly 
unknown to the people. Wickliffe translated the whole of the 
Old and New Testaments, and so made his name dear and im¬ 
mortal as a real benefactor of his countrymen. 

§ 5. During the period we are considering great changes were 
made in the constitution of government, Magna Char- 
a § 16, p. 160. taa ( which wag frequently confirmed) being the basis. 
During the first century or more after the Conquest, the great 
council of the realm b was composed only of the ten- 
b § 10 , P . 87. ants . in _ chief ? or yassals of the king. Of these, one 

portion consisted of the bishops and abbots, or heads of religious 
houses holding immediately of the crown. The lay portion con¬ 
sisted of the earls and barons, meaning by the latter those holding 
of the king. These, in turn, were entitled to a summons which 
gave them a right to sit in the council. 

§ 6. The earliest indication that we have of popular representa¬ 
tion is found in a summons, in the year 1255, for “two good and 
discreet knights from each county, whom the men of the county 
should have chosen for the purpose, instead of all and each of 
them, to consider, along with the knights of other counties, what 
aid they would grant the king in such an emergency.” That 
emergency was the sending of an expedition into Gascony. Ten 
years later, two citizens or burgesses of every city and borough in 
the kingdom, chosen by the people, were summoned to sit in a 
representative council with the knights. 

§ 7. Such was the origin of the House of Commons. At first 
they held a very humble position, scarcely daring to lift their 
eyes in the presence of- the great lords and bishops; and their 
chief business was to prefer petitions and grant subsidies to the 
monarch. The two houses met together in Westminster Hall, the 
Commons occupying the lower end; and it was not until in the 
reign of Edward the Third that they met in different chambers. 

§8. For two centuries after the Conquest the statutes were 
written in Latin, when the relations of England with France be¬ 
came so intimate that they were written in French. In the pro¬ 
mulgation of the statutes they were always translated from both 
the Latin and French. 


Chapter X.] 


THE PLANTAGENETS. 


231 


Courts of Justice. 


First Lawyers. 


Commercial Regulations. 


§ 9. In the earlier stages of the history of the courts of justice, 
the parliaments appear to have partaken considerably more of the 
character of a supreme court of judicature than it afterward did. 
And for the trial of great offences, like treason, parliament con¬ 
tinued to be a high court until toward the close of the reign of 
Edward the Third, when the Commons first appeared as prose¬ 
cutors, and the king and lords were considered the judges. So 
in our government, the House of Representatives, in the case of the 
impeachment of the president, appears as the accuser and prose¬ 
cutor, and the Senate becomes a high court for trial. 

§ 10. The tribunal next in authority to the parliament was the 
council, consisting of the king and all the lords and peers of the 
realm. It corresponded somewhat to the present British Privy 
Council. Below these were the inferior county courts, already 
mentioned. B And it was at about this time, when the ^ ^ ^ p . ^ 
law became complicated and voluminous, that pro¬ 
fessional lawyers appeared, and had special residences provided, 
like that by the Earl of Lincoln, known as Lincoln’s Inn, in 


London. 


§ 11. It seems as if, during much of the period under considera¬ 
tion, the rulers of England, by unwise regulations of commerce, 
tried to suppress it altogether by attempting to annul the laws of 
nature. The articles of English produce upon which customs 
were paid were called “ staples of the kingdom,” and these all 
had to be carried to stipulated ports to be weighed or measured, 
and the customs collected before they could be sold. All mer¬ 
cantile dealings were also, for a time, restricted to certain places. 
Then the great increase in the foreign commerce of the country 
perplexed legislators; and the most ruinous efforts were made 
to secure the entire benefits of that trade to England. Had 
these been successful—for example, an order issued by Edward 
the First, directing all foreign merchants to sell their goods 
within forty days after their arrival; also, not allowing foreign 
mpr<Vhn.nts to reside in England, excepting by special license and 



small, and most uncouth in appearance. 


232 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book Y. 

Ships of the Thirteenth Century. Coinage. Husbandry of England. 

lent by the republic of Venice, in 1270, to Louis of France, when 
he set out on liis second crusade, was one hundred and twenty-five 
feet in length, and carried one hundred and ten men. That was 
considered a ship of extraordinary size. The English ships were 
much smaller. In 1360, Edward the Third, in an order for the 
arrest of all the vessels in the kingdom for an expedition against 
France, directed that the largest ships should carry forty manners, 
forty armed men, and sixty archers. The merchant vessels were 
generally much smaller, but they often carried valuable cargoes, 
some estimated as high as five and six thousand pounds sterling. 

§ 13. The earliest record of the exports and imports of England 
is an account of the foreign trade given in the year 1354. The 
total value of exports that year was £212,338, paying customs to 
the amount of £81,846. Wool then constituted thirteen-four¬ 
teenths of the entire exports of England, on which was paid 
an export duty of forty per cent, of its value. The imports 
that year [1354] amounted in value to £38,383. It is proper to 
say that there were some exports and imports of commodities on 

which no customs were paid. f 

§ 14. The coinage of England, in denominational value, was the 
same during this as in the preceding period.* It, 

8 § 9, P . 165. however? became corrupted by clipping (a crime 
charged upon the Jews at the time of the massacre when Richard 
the First was crowned b ), and by the issue of counter- 
b § 3, p. 144. feits> g cotch co i ng were greatly deteriorated at this 

period; so also were those of Ireland. Silver was .the only metal 
used until Robert the Second, of -Scotland (nephew 
° §29, P . 194. of Ro bert the First 6 ) [1371-1390], coined some gold 
money. The coins were generally rude in workmanship, and not 
always of uniform weight. By a statute passed in the thirteenth 
century, it was declared that the sterling English penny should 
“ weigh thirty-two grains of wheat, dry, in the midst of the ear.” 
This was the origin of the weight still called “pennyweight,” 
though it now contains only twenty-four grains. Tlie stamping 
of the coins was done by a hammer, and this method continued 
until 1663, when the milled money was made. 

§ 15. The husbandry of England was much the same as in the 
preceding period. Each manor-house had three gardens, a fish¬ 
pond, and a rabbit-warren. The flesh of the rabbits was used for 
food, and their fur for articles of dress; and the fish-ponds were 


Chapter X.] THE PLANTAGEHETS. 233 

Manorial Estates. Diet. Wages. Internal Commerce. Trades. 

a convenience on fast-days. Around these manor-houses were the 
mean cottages of the laborers or tenants, each of whom occupied 
only three acres. Some of the manorial estates were wealthy in 
domestic animals. There were carried away from that of the elder 
De Spenser, when it was ravaged,* 1 28,000 sheep, 1,000 oxen and 
heifers, 1,200 cows, with their calves, 500 cart-horses, 
and 2,000 hogs. § ’ P 

§ 16. The diet of the laborers usually consisted, in harvest, of 
herrings, a loaf of bread, and beer. They ate but two meals— 
dinner at nine and supper at five. b The most liberal^ p m 
allowance was two herrings a day, milk from the 
manor dairy to make cheese, and a loaf of bread, of which fifteen 
were made from a bushel of wheat. 

§ 17. The head harvestman of the manor was chosen by the ten¬ 
ants each year. During his term of service he enjoyed certain 
privileges. He slept tX the manor-house, and had a horse kept for 
him in the lord’s stable. Women performed field labor of the 
lighter kind. Their wages were lower than those of men, which 
were usually twopence a day; and in harvest time young and old, 
of both sexes, were afield. When the crops were gathered each 
tenant received his share of the product, and this was expected to 
last him until the next harvest; but improvident consumption im¬ 
mediately after harvest often produced famines. 

§ 18. A large portion of the internal trade of the country was 
earned on at fail’s and appointed markets, at which London trades¬ 
men appeared with toys, drugs, spices, and small wares. The 
trades were more numerous than in the preceding period, a num¬ 
ber, under different names, being only portions of what were car¬ 
ried on by single persons. In London there were no less than 
forty-eight in the year 1376. Among them were skinners, girdlers, 
tapestry-weavers, spurriers, cloth-measurers, salters, pouch-makeis, 
and homers—occupations now unknown as distinct- pursuits. 
Some of these trades were carried on by women as well as men. 

§ 19. Literature, science, and art in England felt the impulse 
of the great intellectual awakening on the Continent in the thir¬ 
teenth century, where there was a universal revolt from the study 
of words and of {esthetics incident to a revival of classical lcarn- 
ino- to that of thoughts and of things. The enthusiasm of the cru¬ 
sades seems to have been succeeded by the enthusiasm of study m 
the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. In the beginning of the 


234 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 


[Book Y. 

Literature and Science. History and Poetry. Architecture. 

latter there were thirty thousand students in the University of 
Oxford, and as many in the University of Paris. The study of 
elegant literature was now nearly abandoned, and everywhere was 
seen a passion for metaphysical disputation which gratified men’s 
vanity. The study of the logic of Aristotle, which former Popes 
had forbidden, was now pursued with a zeal that amounted to 
enthusiasm. Mathematical studies and investigations were exten¬ 
sively engaged in, as well as astrology and alchemy parents, 
respectively, of modem astronomy and chemistry. 

§ 20. In the mathematical and physical sciences Roger Bacon is 
the great name in the thirteenth century. The range of his inves¬ 
tigations included theology, grammar, the ancient languages, 
geometry, astronomy, chronology, geography, music, optics, me¬ 
chanics, chemistry, and other branches of experimental philosophy, 
in which he created a new era. 

§ 21. There were several prominent historical writers during this 
period, the most eminent of whom was Mathew Paris, a monk of 
the monastery of St, Albans. But their works are defiled with leg¬ 
ends and romances which stain their character as histories. In¬ 
deed, Dr. Lingard has pronounced the History of England from the 
Conquest, written by Paris, as “ a romance rather than a history.” 

§ 22. Of poets, the most renowned of this period were Chaucer 
and Gower. That wonderful minstrel of the fourteenth century, 
Chaucer, has never been surpassed in the entire assemblage of his 
various poetic qualities, excepting by Shakespeare. That, too, was 
the period of the birth of Scottish poetry, of which Barbour and 
Wynton are the early representatives. Then, too, while the lan¬ 
guage of the learned was Latin, and of the nobility French, the 
first important steps were taken in the passage of the speech of the 
common people from the Anglo-Saxon into modem English. 

§ 23. In sacred architecture, the Gothic had now become the 
prevailing type, but was somewhat modified in England from its 
French original. The finest remaining specimen of the early Eng¬ 
lish Gothic style is Salisbury Cathedral, founded in the year 1220. 
In the reign of Edward the Second [1284-1827], the decorated 
English style was introduced, more florid and meretricious than 
the earlier. Castle-building had received a check in the reign of 
Henry the Second [1154-1189].- In that of Edward the First 
[1272-1307], the castles assumed the. character of a fortress and 
palace combined, and they presented an elegance before unknown. 


THE PLANTAGENETS. 


235 


Chapter X.] 

Dwellings. Sculpture. Living. Furniture and Costume. 

§ 24. The mere domestic style of building of that period was 
very simple, and in form the dwellings, with plain gabled out¬ 
lines, presinted the appearance of the common farm-house of our 
day—a great improvement upon the houses of the preceding 
period. 

§ 25. Sculpture was chiefly employed in monumental architec¬ 
ture, of which many rich specimens are preserved. Painting was 
so inferior that it hardly claimed the character of a fine art at that 
period, and music had not yet attained to the dignity of a science. 
The musical instruments then in use were the oboe, trumpet, cla¬ 
rion, dulcimer, tabret, violin, flute, and harp. 

§ 26. During this period the style of living had become more 
comfortable and elegant. Even among the laborers a display of 
taste was often seen. In the houses of the rich the furniture was 
costly. The wood-work was elegantly carved, and the coverings 
of chairs and hangings of bedsteads were often of silk and other 
rich stuffs. The bedsteads, in form, resembled the child’s crib 
of our day. On the bed-clothes the nobility had their arms em¬ 
broidered; and in the will of the Earl of March a 

’ a § 16, p. 223. 

[1380] beds of black satin, of blue, red, and white 

silk, and of black velvet, more or less embroidered with gold, sil¬ 
ver, and colors, are mentioned. 

§ 27. Cupboards were well filled with plate, and a fork of crystal, 
brought from Italy, is mentioned in Edward the First’s wardrobe 
account. But forks were not introduced into England, at table, 
until the seventeenth century. 

§ 28. The civil costume in England did not differ very essen¬ 
tially at this period from that of the preceding era, which we have 
described. 1 * The men wore a greater variety of head- b ^ ^ ^ lgg 
coverings, and the mantles of the rich were distin¬ 
guished for their costliness. | The principal change in feminine 
attire was in the fashion of wearing the hair, and in the extrava¬ 
gant length of the trails of their dresses, for which they were 
attacked by the satirists of then* day. The hair, instead of being 
plaited in long tails as formerly, 0 was turned up be- c ^ 20 p 169 
hind, and entirely enclosed in a, network composed of 
gold, silver, or silk thread, over which was worn a veil, and some¬ 
times, in addition, a round cap. Garlands and chaplets of gold¬ 
smiths’ work were also worn by the nobility; and in summer 
wreaths of flowers were worn by all classes. 


236 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 


[Book V. 


Fashions. Chivalry. Cookery. Sports. 

§ 29. Toward the close of the reign of Henry the Third, a most 
unbecoming neckcloth, called a gorget, was introduced. In the 
reign of the first Edward it was wrapped two or three times around 
the neck, and then fastened with a great number of pins. “ Par 
Dieu! ” exclaims Jean de Meun, when describing this portion of 
feminine attire, “ I have often thought in my heart, when I have 
seen a lady so closely tied up, that her neckcloth was nailed to her 
chin, or that she had the pins hooked in her flesh.” Tight lacing 
was now in vogue, and also tight buttoning of the sleeves from 
the wrists to the elbows. The kirtles of the ladies were of light 
blue silk; their mantles of green velvet, embroidered with gold 
and richly furred. The wits, because of the length of their skirts, 
spoke of them as peacocks and pies, “having long tails that 
trail in the dirt.” The whimsical fashion of indenting, escollop- 
ing, and otherwise cutting the edges of garments, against which 
there had been legislative enactments, was now carried out with 
^ the greatest extravagance. 11 Sometimes the richer la- 
~ ’ P ’ " dies wore girdles of beaten gold set with precious 
stones, and coronets with costly gems. The men in Edward the 
Third’s reign adopted close-fitting garments, and from the elbows 
depended long white tippets or streamers. And now began the 
habit of changing fashions often, in imitation of the custom on the 
Continent; and Paris became, what it ever since has been, the foun¬ 
tain of fashions and the arbiter of taste in dress. Foppery became 
common in England; and in the reign of Richard the Second the 
masculine attire assumed the most whimsical forms, while the 
feminine attire was graceful and elegant. 

§ 30. Chivalry at this period was in its noontide splendor, and 
gave tone to society. There was a recklessness and brilliance in 
entertainments before unknown, while the common people adhered 
to their old simple modes of living. Cookery had become a sort 
of science—a most vicious science—and was most complicated and 
artificial. But for the continual out-of-door exercises of all classes 
of the aristocracy, the cooks with their spices and pastry would 
have made England a land of dyspeptics. 

§ 31. Hunting and horse-racing were favorite sports in the field, 
and chess was the popular game of the nobles within doors. The 
ladies hunted with the gentlemen, and engaged with them in many 
other amusements. It was a mark of great gallantry and friend¬ 
ship for a knight to ask a lady to eat off the same plate with him. 


Chapter XI. J THE PLANTAGENETS. 237 

Jesters. Feast of Fools and Boy Bishop. New King. 

We have an account of a feast in Perce Forest where eight hundred 
knights sat table, each with a lady sharing his plate, while not a 
husband of one of them dared show his face there. 

§ 32. At the feasts the jester was now a regular appendage. 
Mummers, masqueraders, rope-dancers, and jugglers were favorites 
with the common people, and late in this period the Feast of Fools 
was kept by the populace. It was celebrated at Christmas time, 
and resembled the old Roman Saturnalia. It was a season of uni¬ 
versal license among the commonalty, in which all orders and 
authorities were reversed. The most ignorant boor became a 
pope; the buffoon, a cardinal; and the lowest of the mob be¬ 
came priests and abbots. The mob took possession of the churches 
and parodied every part of the sacred service, singing masses com¬ 
posed of obscene songs, and preaching sermons filled with all 
manner of lewdness and buffoonery. This riotous feast was not so 
extravagantly commemorated in England as on the Continent, and 
the good sense of the people soon caused it to fall into disuse. But 
for a long time, even until the middle of the sixteenth century, 
another parody was kept up, known as the institution of the Boy 
Bishop. This was a practice of the boys of the church choirs, at 
a certain festival, dressing up in full canonicals, and making one 
of their number bishop, investing him with mitre and crosier, and 
then taking possession of the church, mimicking the whole of the 
devotional exercises. 


CHAPTER XI. 

reign of Henry the Fourth. [a.d. 1399 to 1413.] 

§ 1. It was on the last day of September, 1399, when Henry, 
surnamed Bolingbroke, son of the Duke of Lancaster, was crowned 
in Westminster Abbey by the Archbishop of Canterbury, with the 
title of Henry the Fourth. He was the first of the royal House of 
Lancaster, and was thirty-three years of age when he ascended the 
throne. 

§ 2. The new king was totally unlike his yet living a g ^ p 2 -27. 
predecessor. a Whilst stiH a youth, and known only 
as Sir Henry of-Lancaster, he acquired great skill in all martial 



238 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 


[Book V. 


‘ § 2, p. 217. 


b § 11, p. 209. 


Henry’s Career and Accession. Bis First Parliament. False Nobles. 

exercises, and accompanied his father, John of Gaunt, a in his 
* Spanish wars. Then he assumed the cross, fought in 
Barbary against the Moors, next in the east of Europe 
with the Teutonic knights against the pagans of Lithuania, and 
wound up his career by a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. 

§ 3. On the return of Henry to England he became at once a 
popular favorite, whilst his fame rendered him an object of jealous 
dislike to the king. The plots of the Duke of Gloucester, how¬ 
ever, caused a reconciliation between the royal cousins, as Glouces¬ 
ter had evidently designs on the crown, and the Earl 
of Derby, b as he was now called, had, through his 
mother, what he was pleased to consider a “ claim by right line of 
the blood ” to it also, which Richard, who had no family, was 
more likely to recognize than Gloucester would be, should he “ win 
his way through slaughter to the throne.” Hence Derby joined 
in the condemnation of his uncle, and was rewarded 
with the title of Duke of Hereford.® His quarrel 
with Norfolk, his banishment, his return, his being made king, 
followed in a brief space of time, as already re¬ 
lated. 4 

§ 4. The parliament that had deposed Richard proceeded much 
in the style of the “Wonder-working Parliament” e of 
1386. Almost every act of the late king or his min¬ 
isters since that time was set aside, and pardons, of course, granted 
to their opponents. The murder of the Duke of Gloucester was 
inquired into, and the titles given in consequence disallowed. The 
ex-king was doomed to perpetual imprisonment, and special thanks 
were voted to the people of London for the great share that they 
had taken in the late revolution. But the assembly was a 
most tumultuous one, charges of treachery and falsehood being 
freely (and truly) made on all sides, and not less than forty 
gauntlets thrown upon the floor as gages of combat between 
nobles and knights. The new king, however, who was of a 
stem temper, and fitted to hold rule among such men, peremp¬ 
torily forbade this, and the deadly quarrel was delayed until after 
the coronation. 

§ 5. Among the nobles who swore allegiance to Henry on this 
occasion were several who had no intention of ad- 

f § 22, p. 226. 

liering to him. Such were the Earls of Huntingdon f 
and Kent (who were Richard’s half-brother and nephew, and had 


> § 22, p. 226. 


d § 23, p. 226. 


» § 17, p. 223. 


230 


Chapter XL] THE PLANTAGENETS. 

Plots frustrated. England’s Troubles. Discontents. 

been deprived of their higher titles of Dukes of Exeter and Sur¬ 
rey). the Earl of Salisbury, and Lord De Spenser (the great-grand¬ 
son of the lord of Edward the Second’s time, who had lost his title 
of Earl of Gloucester). 0 They plotted the murder of the king at a 
tournament, but being foiled in this they took up arms. 

That was in the year 1400. Henry pursued them ’ P ‘ ~ v ' 
with an army of Londoners, but ere he could reach them they had 
been defeated at Cirencester, and many of them put to death by the 
people of that town. Lord De Spenser was captured while trying 
to escape to Wales, and was executed at Bristol, and the Earl of 
Huntingdon, falling into the power of the Countess of Hereford 
(the mother-in-law of Henry and sister of the late Earl of Arundel), 
was beheaded by her on her own authority, and in her presence. 
Numerous executions followed, particularly of Richard’s personal 
attendants, and their heads, being sent to London, were received 
with barbarous rejoicings, the Archbishop of Canterbury going 
out to meet them chanting a Te Deum. 

§ 6. But though this attempt had failed, and had consequently 
rendered the throne of Henry more secure, he and the people who 
had chosen him were only at the beginning of their troubles. The 
kings both of France and of Scotland declared the truces at an end, 
as having been concluded with Richard, and to the end of Henry’s 
reign they refused the royal title to him. Waleran, Count of St. 
Pol, who had married Richard’s half-sister, fitted out a fleet in his 
name, and, in company with the Spanish galleys, ravaged the coast 
from Cornwall to Suffolk. The French threatened invasion; the 
Scots burst into the north of England; and the Welsh, headed by 
Owen Glyndwr, the great-grandson of their last native 

. . . b § 5, p. loo. 

prince, b made a desperate attempt to regain their in- 
dependence. In addition to these troubles, some at least of those 
who had placed Henry on the throne had now become anxious to 
drive him from it. Vast estates had been seized from Richard’s 
friends, but instead of bestowing them freely among his supporters, 
Henry unwisely granted the greater part to his own sons, which, 
as the eldest of them was only twelve years of age, was considered 
much the same as keeping them in his own hands. This unfair 
division of the spoil reminded some of the nobles that, however 
unworthy to reign Richard might have been, Henry was not -his 
heir, and they accordingly prepared to take arms against him. 

§ 7. According to the ordinary rules of succession, the crown of 


2-10 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book V. 

Aspirations for the Crown. War against the Scots. Enemies coalesce. 

England should have passed to Edmund Mortimer, Earl of March, 
then a boy of seven years of age, and the son of that Roger Morti¬ 
mer who had been declared heir to the throne in 1385. a 
a ^ 16 ’ p ’ 22 ’ J ' The parliament, it is true, had set this aside; but the 
youth’s relatives were not inclined to recognize this if they could 
avoid it, and accordingly his uncle, Sir Edmund Mortimer, re¬ 
paired to the border of Wales, when Henry, suspecting that war 
was intended, seized the young earl and his sisters and imprisoned 
them in Windsor Castle. Shortly after this, Sir Edmund was 
taken prisoner by Glyndwr, who regarded all the Marchers as his 
enemies, when Henry refused to suffer his friends to ransom him. 

§ 8. Among these friends were the potent Earl of Northumber¬ 
land and his son Hotspur, b who were already dis- 
b § 19, p. 224. contente( j on their own account with the king that 
they had so greatly helped to make. To them had chiefly been left 
the defence of the border against the Scots, and they complained 
that large sums of money which had been voted for that purpose 
had been kept back and wasted on court favorites. They, how¬ 
ever, carried on the war, and Hotspur gave a great defeat to the 
Scots at Homildon Hill [September 14, 1402], where a large num¬ 
ber of knights and nobles were made prisoners. The ransom of 
prisoners was then a most important matter, the sums to be paid 
being well regulated according to rank, and forming a fund which 
captors looked to to repay a part, at least, of their expenses; but 
for some reason Henry now chose to forbid them to ransom any 
of their captives without his special permission. The result was 
soon seen. The Percys formed an alliance with the Earl of 
Douglas, their chief prisoner; then communicated w T ith Sir Ed¬ 
mund Mortimer, and through him made a formal treaty with 
Glyndwr, their professed object being to restore Richard, if alive 
(which the Scots asserted him to be), or if not, to place the Earl 
of March on the throne. There were other plots for displacing 
Henry, such as that of the widow of Earl de 
c § o, p. 23 . gp encer c w ] 10 p ac i powerful partisans. 

§ 9. Whilst the Earl of Northumberland stayed behind in the 
north, strengthening his castles and gathering further forces, his 
gallant son, Hotspur, and his brother, the Earl of Worcester, hur¬ 
ried forward with 14,000 men to the borders of Wales, expect¬ 
ing to be met there by Glyndwr. But the latter was engaged in 
besiegmg the strong town of Caermarthen, and before he could 

o o o 


Chapter XI.] THE PLANTAGENETS. 241 

Death of Northumberland. The Lollards and the Church. Confiscations. 


get near them they had been attacked and totally defeated, near 
Shrewsbury, by Henry, on the 21st of July, 1403. Hotspur fell in 
the battle, and the Earl of Worcester was captured and executed. 
Henry then marched to York, where the Earl of Northumberland 
came and made his submission. His life was spared, but many of 
his possessions were taken from him, and he sought refuge in 
Scotland. A few years later, fearing to be delivered up by the 
Scots, he repaired to Glyndwr, in Wales, after which he again 
appeared in arms in Yorkshire, when he was killed in a conflict 
with the sheriff [a.d. 1408], and the Percys remained under 
attainder until the next reign. 

§ 10. But they were not the only parties who, having served 
Henry’s turn, were cast off by him. His father had declared 
himself a patron of John Wickliffe, and the Lollards, as Wick- 
liffe’s disciples .were commonly called, 2 * had strenu- a § 25 p 216 
ously supported Henry’s claim to the crown. They 
professed to look on the possession of property by the church as an 
abuse, and very early in his reign they proposed its confiscation 
for the benefit of the State. Henry was ready to listen to them; 
but his friend Archbishop Arundel convinced him that more 
was to be got by protecting the church than by plundering it. 
The king at once abandoned his allies, and allowed a statute to be 
passed which condemned them to be burnt as heretics. William 
Sawtre, a London priest, was the first sufferer under it, in the year 
1401. Notwithstanding the change in Henry’s policy, the scheme 
was brought forward at what was called “ the Unlearned Parlia¬ 
ment,” held in 1404, and so named because “ men learned in the 
law” (then usually clergymen) had no place in it. It is probable 
that this was the work of Henry’s dishonest ministers, as a means 
of obtaining a large grant from the fears of the clergy, and this 
end was answered. It was again brought forward in 1411, with 
the like result. 

§ 11. When Henry took possession of the throne, he loudly pro¬ 
mised to head an army against France, and to lead it further than 
even his grandfather) Edward the Third, had done ; but he never 
took any steps to carry out this boast. Unlike what was expected 
from his early career, he had little success in war. Three times he 
marched into Wales, but he was never able to bring Glyndwr to 
action, and his troops suffered so much from bad weather that the 
chroniclers gravely attributed their disasters to the magic aits of 
11 


242 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book V. 


Glyndwr Sovereign of Wales. 


He liberates his country. 


their skilful opponent. The bards declared that he made battle 
from the clouds, and used the elements as his allies and vassals. 

s 12. Glyndwr, or Glendower, had been brought up in the Eng¬ 
lish court, and was knighted by Richard the Second, on whom he 
attended until his deposition. He then repaired to his estates in 
Wales when he found that a part of his lands had been seized by 
Lord Grey of Ruthyn, one of the Marchers, and a supporter of 
Henry. Despairing of redress from the law, which the other Marc 
ers were not likely to administer impartially, he at once took up 
arms, captured Lord Grey, and threw him into prison. It was the 
first time for a century that a native Welshman had dared to 
withstand the tyranny of the Marchers, and the news produced a 
wonderful effect. Large numbers of the Welsh had settled m 
England, some as priests or monks, some as students at Oxfor , 
but many more as minstrels, or huntsmen, or “ valets,” 1 m the 
establishments of the nobles, but they now quitted their posts 
in thousands and flocked to join Glyndwr. He was learned, 
valiant, skilled in arms, and quite able to avail himself of the 
opportunity given of endeavoring to free his country. He at 
once assumed the title of “ Owen, Prince of Wales,” was crowned 
at the old seat of Welsh royalty, Machynlleth, and was formally 
acknowledged as a sovereign by the King of France, who also 

sent him aid in men, money, and ships. 

§ 18. Thus strengthened he gained and held possession of by 
far the greater part of Wales, ravaged the border, and with his 
French allies marched into England as far as Worcester, but 
found that city too strong to be attacked. But in Wales scarcely 
a single place held out successfully against him. He captured all 
the strong castles that Edward the First had erected, and most of 
the “ English towns,” 2 as they were called, submitted to him. He 
drove out the Bishop of Bangor, and appointed another in his 


i This was tbe name then given to the confidential attendants and humble friends of 
kings and great men, to whom important private affairs, that it might not be safe to 
write ab .ut, were ofetn intrusted by word of mouth. The Welsh were much valued 
for their faithfulness in such matters. 

a Among these were Brecknock, Caermarthen, Montgomery, and Radnor. Edward 
the First peopled these entirely with English, on whom he conferred very important 
privileges. No Welshman was to reside in them above the rank of a servant, and any 
burgess who married a Welshwoman thereby forfeited bis freedom, and was to be ex¬ 
pelled Glyndwr’s capture of these towns broke up the system. A feeble attempt 
was made to restore it in the reign of Henry the Seventh, and the Marchers retained 
something of their old oppressive power for a century longer. 


IHE PLANTAGENETS. 


243 


Chapter XI.] 

Scotland and France. 


The latter distracted by Quarrels. 


stead, and lie remained unconquered during the whole of Henry’s 
reign. At last he died, at the age of fifty [a.d. 1415], at the time 
that Henry the Fifth had begun a treaty with him, not deeming it 
advisable to leave so formidable an adversary behind him when 
he entered on his French wars. The Welsh then laid down their 
arms, but the Marchers a never afterward fully re- a g 10 p 109 
covered the power that they had so abused. 

§ 14. Glyndwr abandoned the cause of the Earl of March after 
the death of Hotspur, b but it was then taken up by the b g 9 p 240 
Archbishop of York. The only result, however, was 
the execution of the archbishop and several of his associates [a.d. 
1405], and the young earl remained a prisoner, in spite of several 
efforts to release him, during the whole of Henry’s reign. 

§ 15. At this time Scotland and France were alike disturbed by 
civil commotions, their kings being both weak men who were 
tyrannized over by their ambitious relatives. Robert., Duke of Al¬ 
bany, the brother of the King of Scotland, plotted against and 
destroyed one of his nephews, and when the father endeavored to 
secure his only remaining son by sending him to France, the youth 
was captured on his passage by an English ship, and brought to 
Henry, who, though a truce existed, kept him a prisoner. When 
urged to let him depart, so that his education might be carried on, 
he replied: “My fair cousin need travel no further for that; for I 
can speak French.” Charles the Sixth of France was even more 
helpless than Robert of Scotland, 0 and the contention # § ^ p 1Q4 
of his kinsmen, the Dukes of Orleans and Burgundy, 
paved the way for the partial conquest of France, which was 
achieved by Henry’s successor. In his day matters were not suf¬ 
ficiently advanced for the invasion that he had threatened; but he 
interfered in the quarrel, and gave his support first to one side and 
then to the other, according to his views of temporary advantage. 
But towards the close of his reign the rival dukes for a while for¬ 
got their differences and united against their dangerous allies, 
w t 1io, in revenge, ravaged Normandy before they withdrew, in the 
year 1412. 

§ 16. During the latter years of his life Henry suffered much 
from illness, and he had the mortification to learn that Ins eldest 
son seemed little inclined to wait for his death ere he should pos¬ 
sess himself of the crown that he had so unjustly acquired. At 
length he fell into a fit whilst at his devotions before the shrine of 


244 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book Y. 

Death of the King. His Family and Character. Power of the People. 

St. Edward, 11 in Westminster Abbey, and died a few days after¬ 
ward. That event occurred on the 20th of March, 1413, 
a § 17, p. 77. when the king was in the forty-seventh year of his 

age and the fourteenth of his reign. His body was taken to Can¬ 
terbury Cathedral, where it was laid by the side of his best beloved 
wife and the mother of his four sons and two daughters. 

§ 17. Henry in his youth acquired vast estates by his marriage 
with Mary de Boliun, the heiress of the Earl of Hereford, but was 
left a widower at an early age. After he became king he married 
Joanna of Navarre [a.d. 1403], the widow of John, Duke of Brit¬ 
tany. She had no children by the king. She was an object of 
dislike to her stepson, Henry the Fifth, and was imprisoned by 
him. Henry had trained his sons to take an active part in public 
affairs, and the younger ones became valuable assistants to his suc¬ 
cessor in his wars. Thomas, Duke of Clarence, was the lieutenant 
in Ireland; John, Duke of Bedford, upheld the English rule in 
France; and Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, fought at Agincourt. 

§ 18. Unquiet as it was, Henry’s reign is remarkable for the 
rapid growth of popular privileges and the consequent decline of 
the royal prerogative. His parliament showed little confidence in 
him. They remonstrated freely on any subject that displeased 
them, forced him to dismiss favorite officers of his household who 
happened to be obnoxious to them, and obliged him to allow that 
to the Commons belonged exclusively the right of imposing taxes 
and controlling the public expenditure, and setting aside illegal 
grants. This was an important step toward the attainment of 
popular freedom. As before noticed, b the Commons 
b § 10, p ' 241 ' sometimes showed an extravagant jealousy of the 
church, and a desire to confiscate its possessions, but Archbishop 
Arundel defeated the project. 

§ 19. The character of Henry may be clearly traced in his ac¬ 
tions. Enterprising, and a seeker of popularity in his youth, he 
let no scruples of honor or conscience stand in his way when he 
had an end to attain, and he was equally unscrupulous and cruel 
in getting rid of even his most devoted adherents when once they 
had ceased to be useful to him. No ties of kindred could miti¬ 
gate his cruelty. Several of the nobles put to death by him were 
very near connections. Not to mention King Richard, who was 
his first cousin, the Percys were his kinsmen, and the Earl of 
Huntingdon was liis sister’s husband. His usurpation was the 


THE PL ANT AGENET S. 


245 


Chapter XII.] 


Accession of Henry the Fifth. His Antecedents. Public expectations. 

direct cause of the disastrous struggle known as the War of the 
Roses, by which the ancient English nobility were almost anni¬ 
hilated. 


CHAPTER XII. 


‘ § 7, p. 239. 


reign of Henry the Fifth. [a.d. 1413 to 1422.] 

§ 1. The death of Henry of Bolingbroke was not regretted; but 
the accession of his son, Henry of Monmouth, was hailed with joy. 
No word was whispered concerning the claim of the young Earl 
of March ,* 1 now grown to manhood; and Henry was 
crowned in Westminster Abbey, on the 9th of April, 

1413, with great pomp, and the noise of popular rejoicings, as 
Henry the Fifth. He was then only in the twenty-fifth year of his 
age, but showed great vigor of mind and body. He had said at 
the death-bed of his father, when that monarch expressed some 
remorse for his usurpation , 15 “By your sword you 
won your crown, and by my sword will I keep it.” But 
he magnanimously ordered the body of the dead Richard the Sec¬ 
ond to be brought from its obscure tomb at Langley , 0 
with funeral pomp, and buried in Westminster Abbey 
with those of the other monarchs of England. They were laid 
by the side of those of his “Good Queen Anne.” d d § 15 p 222 
He also released his rival, the Earl of March, from 

e § 14, p. 243. 

his captivity. e 

§ 2. Henry had been employed in public life before he ascended 
the throne. lie fought against Glyndwr, and was wounded in the 
battle of Shrewsbury. f He was lieutenant of Wales, f ^ g p 240 
and also warden of the Cinque Ports, s and though much ’ ^ 

of his w r ork was no doubt done by his deputies, he 8 § ’ p ‘ 
must have been too fully employed to have much time to give 
to the riotous and dissipated conduct in which he is said to have 
indulged. He and his brother the Duke of Clarence were not 
friends, and the king their father is said to have considered this 
as a fortunate circumstance, as it prevented their uniting against 
him. 

§ 3. During the first year of Henry’s reign there was a significant 


b § 24, p. 227. 


> § 25, p. 227. 



24G HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book V. 

Persecution of the Lollards. The King Conciliatory. His claim to France. 

popular commotion in London, in the interest of religious reform. 
While his first parliament was in session, placards appeared in 
London stating that there were one hundred thousand men ready 
to assert their freedom by force of arms if needful. The covert 
threat was attributed to the Lollards; a and the Arch- 

a § 10 , p. 241. 

bishop of Canterbury accused Sir John Oldcastle 
(Lord Cobham), their leader, to the king. Oldcastle and Henry had 
been associates when the monarch was Prince of Wales, and instead 
of punishing his old friend he sent for him that he might try to 
bring him to different theological conclusions. But Oldcastle was 
as stout a theologian as he was a knight and soldier, and Henry 
failed. The king threatened. The knight retired to his estate. 
The Archbishop was allowed to issue a severe proclamation against 
the whole body of so-called heretics. Sir John laid a plan for 
securing the safety of his co-religionists by force of arms, but 
failed. Many arrests were made, and heads cut off, and bodies 
burned; and the prisons were filled with the poor Lollards, who 
were falsely accused of attempting to overthrow the Christian 
religion. Oldcastle escaped the terrible persecutions inflicted upon 
his friends through the power of the Archbishops of Canterbury, 
Arundel and Chicheley. 

§ 4. When once in possession of the throne, Henry acted in a 
conciliatory manner to many whom his father’s conduct had 
19 2 q 4 a ^ euate< ^- The son of Harry Hotspur b was recalled 

’ P ’ from Scotland and again made Earl of Northumber¬ 
land, and the Earl of March was treated with such cordiality that 
he gave up all idea of the crown, and humbly served the Lancas¬ 
trian princes in their French wars and as their lieutenant in Ire¬ 
land. But though March was willing to forego his right, his 
friends were not, and Henry hastened to find full occupation for 
them by plunging into a war with France. This is said to have 
been the advice of Henry Chicheley, the famous Archbishop of 
Canterbury, and it was acted up to with success. 

§ 5. At this time [a.d. 1414] the factions that had so long af¬ 
flicted France were more infuriated against each other than they 
had been in his father’s time, and their country was proportiona- 
bly weakened. Henry resolved to claim his “inheritance,” as he 
called the crown of France, and first sent an embassy demanding 
the restoration of the former English provinces, and asking a 
French princess in marriage. As he did not expect compliance, 


247 


Chapter XII.] THE PLANTAGENETS. 

Invasion of France. English Fleet dispersed. March toward Calais. 

Ii 3 set at once about collecting a large army, and he formed many 
alliances on the Continent. He also began a treaty with Glyndwr, 
but this was broken off in consequence of that chieftain’s 
death. 11 At length there came a positive refusal from & ^ ^ ^ ^ 42 
France, and Henry repaired to Southampton, where 
his fleet and army were assembled. Here occurred a tragedy 
which has never been fully explained. Richard, Earl of Cam¬ 
bridge, who had married the Earl of March’s sister, 1 was accused 
of conspiring with Lord Scrope of Masham and Sir Thomas 
Grey against Henry’s life, and, after a brief trial, they were all 
beheaded. 

§ 6. The fleet, numbering from 1,200 to 1,400 sailing vessels, 
hired from Holland and other, seaboard countries, set sail a few 
days afterward, passed over to Harfleur, at the mouth of the Seine, 
and landed the troops [Aug. 13, 1414], who numbered about 
30,000. The place was obstinately defended for more than a 
month, but was then obliged to surrender, as Henry had with him 
several cannons of very large size, called bombards, which, says 
his historian, “ vomited from their fiery mouths vast quantities of 
stones, with a vehement explosion and a terrific and intolerable 
noise.” Such large pieces, which the king had procured from 
Germany, with German gunners to work them, seem to have been 
novelties to the French, and almost every town that was attacked 
by them was taken. But though the siege lasted so short a time, 
sickness made great havoc in the English army, and reduced it to 
one-third of its original number. 

§ 7. Henry very soon saw his fleet driven from before Harfleur 
by bad weather, and he therefore offered to resign his conquest if 
allowed to retire unmolested to Calais. b The French, b § 13 p 210 
however, had by this time assembled a force at least 
six times as large as his, and they would hear of nothing but un¬ 
conditional surrender. Henry determined to die first; and leaving 
his cousin, the Earl of Dorset, to garrison Harfleur, he set off on 
his march for Calais. This was a desperate attempt, but the 
French at first contented themselves with harassing his march 
and guarding the fords of the rivers, and breaking down the 
bridges. So passed twelve days, when by a skilful night march 
he evaded their vigilance and crossed the river Somme, which was 
his greatest difficulty. The French then cut up the ordinary road 

i Their only son was Richard. Duke of York, the father of Edward VI. 


248 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 


i § 11, p. 200. 


b § 12, p. 242. 


[Book V. 

The English at Agincourt. Battle expected. The English confident. 

to Calais, and took up a position at Agincourt, where the two 
armies came in sight of each other on the night of the 24th of 
October, 1415. This was not very far from the famous field of 
Crecy, a and the battle that followed greatly resembled 
that, except in being still more destructive to the 
French, who were so superior in number that they thought they 
could afford to neglect all the ordinary rules of warfare. But 
they were terribly undeceived. 

§ 8. Henry sent out David Gam, a Welshman, who was Owen 
Glyndwr’s b brother-in-law, and belonged to the Eng¬ 
lish party in Wales, to espy the force of the enemy, 
and he returned with the report that there were “ enough to be 
killed, enough to be taken, and enough to run away.” The king 
took this confident view, and to keep up the spirits of his follow¬ 
ers he ordered his trumpets and drums to sound throughout the 
night. Their harmony was hardly interrupted by an attack, dur¬ 
ing a storm of wind and rain, from a body of French, led by 
Arthur of Brittany, the son of Joanna of Navarre, Henry’s step¬ 
mother, 0 who were speedily beaten off. Before the 
morning dawned a strong party of archers was placed 
in ambush in advance of the English, who occupied a well-chosen 
position, and the king rode through their ranks, exhorting all to 
fight courageously, and telling them that England should never 
have to pay a ransom for him—he would conquer or die. 

§ 9. The French, who had passed the night in idle mirth and 
boasting, and settling what ransoms they should exact from their 
expected prisoners, appear to have waited awhile in the morning, 
thinking that the English would send to treat for a surrender; but 
as this was not the case, their advanced guard set out about noon, 
on the 25tli of October [a.d. 1415], and moved in a careless manner 
towards the king’s camp. Here they found a strong chevaux-de- 
frise, and whilst preparing to remove it, they were assailed by tre¬ 
mendous flights of arrows not only from the archers in their front, 
but from those in ambush, who were now first perceived. A panic 
soon took the place of their former rash confidence, and they has¬ 
tened back, throwing the rest of their army into dire confusion. 

§ 10. It was now the turn of the English to become the assail¬ 
ants. Whilst the archers steadily pressed on in the centre of the 
line, the king with his knights and men-at-arms dashed at the 
squadrons where the banners of the French princes were displayed, 


* § 17, p. 244. 


Chapter XII.] THE PLANTAGENETS. 249 

The Battle of Agincourt. The English victorious. 

and a furious hand-to-hand contest ensued. Henry was conspicu¬ 
ous from the crown on his helmet, and wherever he moved the 
fight was the fiercest. His young brother, the Duke of Glouces¬ 
ter, was wounded; and Henry, whilst standing over him to pro¬ 
tect him, was brought on his knees by a sword-cut that split one 
of the jewels in his crown. His cousin, the Duke of York, was 
killed near him, his armor was battered and hacked, and at last 
twenty French knights, led by the Lord of Croy, charged in a 
compact body, having sworn on their swords 1 to capture or kill 
him. They were all killed instead. Whilst this was going on 
the Duke of Alencon, one of the French princes, joined in the fray; 
but he, after exchanging a blow or two with the king, was hurled 
from his home and killed, though Henry cried out to spare his 
life. 

§ 11. The battle had now lasted three hours. Seven French 
princes and 100 great nobles lay dead on the field, as well as 8,000 
knights and gentlemen, but the loss among the common men was 
comparatively small, as the knights and nobles hurried forward, 
and thus sheltered them b'y becoming themselves mere targets for 
the English archers. The fall of the Duke of Alencon disheartened 
his knights, and they now fled from the field, followed by the rear 
guard, although it had not been engaged, and was, alone, more 
numerous than the English army. The prisoners taken were the 
Dukes of Bourbon and Orleans, Arthur of Brittany, a a g ^ 24g 
and more than 1,500 knights and nobles. Many of 
these were put to death after the battle had ceased, in consequence 
of an attack made on the baggage guard of the English by a party 
of French fugitives, led by Robinet de Borneville. This was at 
first thought to be a renewal of the action, and every man was 
ordered to kill his prisoners; but the order was reluctantly obeyed, 
and when Henry learnt the truth he commanded the slaughter to 
cease. He then rode along the field, thanking his men, and per¬ 
ceiving David Gam b lying dead, he dubbed him b§8 p 248 
knight. The loss of the English, unlike that of the 
French, fell principally on the common men, 1,600 of whom were 
slain ; but only a very few knights and nobles fell, among whom 
were the Duke ®f York and the Earl of Suffolk. 

§ 12. Though Henry had inflicted this terrible blow on France, 

i The hilt and guard formed a cross, which commonly served the purpose of a cru¬ 
cifix when such was not at hand. 

11 * 


250 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book V. 

Rejoicings in London. Desires of the Emperor of Germany. 

he was not able to follow it up; on the contrary, on the very next 
clay he resumed his march to Calais, where he arrived in three days. 
After a brief halt there he passed over to Dover, carrying the chief 
captives in his own vessel. The day was stormy, and, says the 
chronicler, seemed to them not less terrible than the day of the 
battle; nor could they marvel enough at seeing that the king was 
as much at his ease in the tossing ship as if he had been on land. 
A triumphal entry into London followed, but Henry forbade any 
praises of his victory to be sung, neither would he allow, as his 
council wished, his helmet and armor, which bore many marks of 
battle on them, to-'be shown to the people. He acted ungener¬ 
ously, however, in compelling his stepmother to be present at the 
rejoicings, although her son was a prisoner. She complained of 
this, and the result was that she was soon after accused of witch¬ 
craft, deprived of her dower lands, and imprisoned, and Henry 
only released her when on his own death-bed. 

§ 13. The Emperor of Germany at this time [a.d. 1400-1419] 
was Sigismond, a bold and warlike prince, who had fought against 
the Turks, but had been defeated by them. His great desire was 
to unite the Christian princes against the common enemy, and he 
therefore visited England soon after Henry’s return, hoping to bring 
about a peace between England and France, but he did not suc¬ 
ceed. Henry accompanied him on his return as far as Calais, 
where he entered into an understanding with the Duke of Bur¬ 
gundy which greatly assisted his further operations. This French 
prince, who was known as John the Fearless, had murdered his 
rival, the Duke of Orleans, and now that the inheritor of that title 
was a prisoner, and the hem to the French throne was a youth of 
only twelve years of age, he had the hope of sharing the kingdom 
with his English ally. He, however, delayed openly declaring him¬ 
self until Henry was again at the head of a fresh invading army. 

§ 14. Whilst the new army was in preparation, the garrison of 
Ilarfleur made a destructive march into Normandy, but had some 
difficulty in regaining the town, where they were speedily besieged. 
They were relieved by the Duke of Bedford, and the Earl of Hunt¬ 
ingdon also captured several large French and Genoese vessels; but 
this did not prevent the French landing in Portland, which was 
laid waste by fire. At length, in July, 1417, Henry passed over 
with a large force, and landing on the opposite bank to Harfieur, 
in the course of a few months he overran the greater part of Nor- 


THE PLANTAGENETS. 


251 


Chapter XII.] 

Henry’s Kindness Rewarded. France Submissive. 


“ Heir of France.” 


mandy, so that at the beginning of 1418 he held his royal court at 
Caen, and, as Duke of Normandy, confiscated the estates of all who 
refused to acknowledge him. Many of these he granted to his 
brothers and other leaders in his army, and by the close of the 
year his authority was fully established by the capture of Rouen, 
after a desperate siege of six months. To make their provisions 
hold out the longer, the French had, when winter came on, ex¬ 
pelled the old men, the women, and children, and they would 
have perished of hunger had not Henry charitably fed them, par¬ 
ticularly on Christmas-day, when he declared no Christian should 
starve, if he had the power to prevent it. This politic kindness 
being reported in the city, the populace rose upon the governor 
and compelled him to surrender, saying that the -English king was 
the more merciful lord. * 

§ 15. Henry was now in the full tide of success. The Duke of 
Burgundy had got possession of Paris, as well as of many other 
places, and the Queen of France, Isabella of Bavaria, -was base 
enough to support his projects against her own son Charles, who 
was styled the dauphin. But the youth, or his advisers, sought a 
conference with the duke at Montereau, and there 

a § T3, P- 2o0. 

John the Fearless a was in his turn treacherously mur¬ 
dered. His son, the young Duke of Burgundy, known as Philip 
the Good (less for his own virtues than as being less bad than his 
father), at once joined the English, and Paris and many other 
towns put themselves under the government of Henry, who soon 
after attained his end by means of a treaty with the queen and the 
duke; and on the 21st of May, 1420, the French parliament, bishops, 
barons, and people seemed to vie with each other in eagerness to 
acknowledge Henry as regent of France. Then he married [June 
2, 1420] the French Princess Catherine, and was declared heir to 
the crown of France, the king’s son, Charles, it wasjleclared, 
having forfeited his right by his treachery to John the Fearless, 
Duke of Burgundy. 

§ 16. In the beginning of the year 1421 Henry held his parlia¬ 
ment at Rouen, when he ordered coins to be struck bearing his 
title as “ Heir of France,” and received the homage of his English 
lords for the Norman lands that he had bestowed on them. He 
then passed over to England, and had his queen crowned; but ere 
the rejoicings for this event were-over he received news that showed 
that his conquest was not complete. The dauphin or crown prince 


252 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book Y. 

Revolt in France. Wav renewed. Death of the King. 

of France, not caring to be disinherited through the intrigues of 
his mother, not only kept in arms, but procured the assistance of a 
body of knights and spearmen from Scotland. Their number, how¬ 
ever, was small, and no danger was apprehended from 
a § 17 , P . 244. them . The Duke of d arence » had been left in com¬ 
mand of the English forces during the king’s absence, and he fell 
into the error of too much undervaluing his opponents. The con¬ 
sequence was, that hearing that they were in some force in Anjou, 
he hastened after them with his knights and horsemen only, at¬ 
tacked them without waiting for his archers, and was defeated and 
killed [March 22,1421], with 2,000 of his followers, at Beauge, by 
the united forces of the natives under the patriotic Lafayette. 

§ 17. Henry, on hearing of this, again passed over to France, 
taking with him the young King of Scotland and several Scottish 
nobles. He hoped that their countrymen would forsake the cause 
of the dauphin when they saw their own king in the English camp. 
But they justly regarded him as a prisoner, and fought as stoutly 
as before, and Henry was guilty of the inexcusable cruelty of 
treating any who fell into his hands as traitors. Henry captured 
Dreux, but failed to take Orleans. He passed his Christmas in 
royal state at Paris; and early in the spring he besieged Meaux, 
which he captured after a desperate siege of three months. This 
was his last triumph. He was taken ill shortly afterward with 
some mysterious malady, and after languishing for a month at 
the royal palace of Vincennes, he died there on the last day of 
August, 1422, having possessed his title of “Heir of France” little 
more than two years. His body was brought to England with 
extraordinary pomp. The journey through France occupied many 
days, his funeral car being guarded by 500 knights in black armor, 
and 800 lighted torches being borne before it, with banners and 
pennons innumerable. The churchmen chanted the funeral service 
as the body was borne over London bridge; and his burial in 
Westminster Abbey was solemnized with a magnificence scarcely 
to be credited. His remains were interred near the 

b § 17 , p. 78. skrine of Edward the Confessor, b and for years rev¬ 
erence and honor were paid at his tomb, “ as if it were certain that 
he was a saint in heaven.” 

§ 18. Though boundless ambition was the great feature of 
Henry’s character, and he was gifted with such skill and courage 
as made his reign one series of triumphs, he was something more 


253 


Chapter XIII.] THE PLANTAGENETS. 

The dying King’s Injunctions. Duke of Bedford Regent of France. 

than a mere conqueror. His character is stained by his execution 
of his Scottish prisoners ; a but at other times he showed a ^ 17 p 252 
both clemency and liberality, and was thus able to 
conciliate many of his father’s opponents. A proof of his wisdom 
remains in the instructions that he issued to his army invading 
France, for the prevention of all wanton havoc; and in the direc¬ 
tions that he gave for the protection of the unarmed population he 
showed as much humanity as would be expected in modern times. 


CHAPTER XIII. 

reign of Henry tiie Sixth. [a.d. 1422 to 1461.] 

§ 1. The death-bed of Henry the Fifth was attended by his 
brothers the Dukes of Bedford and Gloucester, as well as by two 
of his most famous captains, the Earls of Salisbury and Warwick. 
He directed that the Duke of Bedford should be regent of France, 
and the Duke of Gloucester protector of England, and that his 
infant son, Henry of Windsor, should be placed in the personal 
charge of his great-uncle, Thomas, Duke of Exeter. He also ex¬ 
horted them to study above all things to keep the friendship of 
the Duke of Burgundy, never to make peace with the dauphin, 
and not to set at liberty any of the noble French prisoners taken 
at Agincourt b until his son had reached man’s estate. b § 7 p 247 
Only the first of his injunctions was carried into ef¬ 
fect. Bedford, as long as he lived, kept a firm hold on his brother’s 
conquests in France, though he was not able to extend them; but 
the Duke of Gloucester ran counter to all the instructions that he 
had received, and occupied himself far more in struggles to make 
himself independent of his council, than in furnishing the needful 
supplies for the war in which Bedford, Salisbury, and Warwick 
were engaged with the adherents of the dauphin. This neglect 
of his duties was strongly opposed by Cardinal Beaufort, Glouces¬ 
ter’s uncle, and' a hostile feeling sprang up between them which 
lasted as long as they both lived. 

§ 2. King Charles of France died in a couple of months after his 
royal son-in-law, when the dauphin at once took the title of Charles 
th 3 Seventh, and was crowned at Poitiers; but the territory then 



254 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 


[Book Y. 


New King of France. Infamous Conduct of a Duke. 

in his possession was so small that the English party styled him, 
in scorn, not king of France, but king of Bourges, which was his 
chief town. The French were so divided in opinion that his main 
strength consisted in his Scottish auxiliaries, but these were almost 
entirely destroyed when his armies were defeated by the Duke of 
Bedford, with much loss, at Crevant and at Vemeuil, in the summer 
of 1424. His little court being also disturbed by factions, his 
cause was by the year 1425 reduced to its lowest condition. But 
then the imprudence of the Duke of Gloucester gave quite another 
turn to affairs, by causing a quarrel with the powerful Duke of 
Burgundy, though it was not until several years afterward that 
that prince formally renounced his alliance with the English. 

§ 3. Humphrey, who strangely has received the title of “the 
good Duke of Gloucester,” seems as little entitled to such a name 
as can well be imagined, for his actions all show an utter want 
of principle. Jaqueline, Countess of Holland, a girl of sixteen, 
married her cousin the Duke of Brabant, but soon afterward, on 
the persuasion of Gloucester, she left him and came to England. 
Here Gloucester, who coveted her estates, persuaded her that her 
marriage was unlawful, and could be set aside on account of rela- 
tionship. He soon married her himself, in spite of the urgent 
remonstrances of his uncle the Cardinal and the rest of the clergy; 
and then, instead of sending some troops that had been raised to 
assist his brother Bedford" to France, he led them 


" § 1, P- 253. 
b § 1, p. 253. 


into Holland, with the view of conquering the coun¬ 
try. The Duke of Burgundy, b who was the cousin of 
Jaqueline, in vain exhorted her to return to her husband; and 
when Gloucester appeared he sent troops against him, and forced 
him to retreat with disgrace. He left his pretended wife behind 
him, who was imprisoned by Burgundy, her feudal superior. Her 
second marriage was pronounced illegal, her estates were forfeited, 
and she at length died in poverty, the victim of “the good duke.” 
He afterwards married Eleanor Cobham, a woman of bad charac¬ 
ter, who also died in prison, being charged with endeavoring to 
kill the king by magic ; a thing that no one thought impossible to 
be accomplished in those days, and therefore as wicked in intent 
as any ordinary murder. 

§ 4. By the interposition of the Duke of Bedford, the Duke of 
Burgundy was induced to overlook the shameful conduct of 
Gloucester; but it was seen that he was no longer a cordial ally of 


255 


Chapter XIII.] THE PLANTAGENETS. 

Siege of Orleans. Jeanne Dare or “Maid of Orleans.” Her Conquests. 

England, and the hopes of the French rose in proportion. They 
also occasionally gained a slight success over small parties of the 
English, and they held such towns as remained to them very reso¬ 
lutely. One of these was Orleans, which Henry him- a ^ ^ p m 
self had failed to take.* The city was besieged in 
the autumn of the year 1428, by the Earl of Salisbury, but he was 
killed by a cannon-ball. The siege was continued by the Earl of 
Suffolk. The French, meanwhile, in endeavoring to cut off a 
convoy of provisions for the besiegers, were totally defeated at 
Roveroy. As it was in the time of Lent, these provisions were 
principally fish, whence the fight is known as the Battle of the 
Herrings. At last, at the end of April, 1429, the city was on the 
point of surrendering through famine, when a deliverer little ex¬ 
pected by either party appeared, and the English cause became 
hopeless, though the war lingered on for twenty years more. 

§ 5. That deliverer was a young peasant girl of eighteen, named 
Jeanne Dare (not D’Arc, as it is commonly written), a native of 
the eastern part of France called Lorraine. She had always de¬ 
lighted in listening to legends of the Virgin, in one of which 
wts a prophecy that a maiden would be the savior of her country 
from great perils. Jeanne now believed herself to be that des¬ 
tined deliverer. Voices from invisible beings commanded her 
to enter at once upon the work. Making her way to the young 
king’s court at Chinon, she entreated him to place her in command 
of an army. She w r as first treated as a lunatic, and was then tried 
as a sorceress. She was acquitted, and was clad in armor. With 
a consecrated banner in one hand, and a consecrated sword in the 
other, she rode at the head of ten thousand men, under Dunois, 
and dispersed the English besieging Orleans [May 8, 1429], whose 
leader, Suffolk, on retiring, said: “It is useless to fight against a 
witch; ” for the English verily believed her to be a sorceress. 

§ 6. The French followed up their advantage. They soon de¬ 
feated and made prisoners of the Earls of Suffolk and Talbot, tw o 
of their most formidable adversaries, and carried then* king m 
triumph to Rlieims, which at once surrendered to them, though 
strongly garrisoned by Burgundians. Here Charles was again 
crowned, Jeanne, now known as the Maid of Orleans, assisting a 
the ceremony. Considering her task accomplished, she now 
wished to return to her home, but she was too useful to lie spared. 
Manv of the strong towns now' drove out their English or Burgun- 


256 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book Y. 

Fate of Jeanne Dare. English Bitterness. France Ravaged. 

dian garrisons, but they were soon besieged by either Bedford or 
Burgundy. Among these was Compiegne, and Jeanne repaired to 
it to assist in its defence. 

§ 7. The Maid’s good fortune, however, now forsook her. She 
was captured whilst heading a sortie, and the Duke of Burgundy 
sold her to the English for a stipulated sum of money. They cru¬ 
elly resolved on revenge, and handed the poor trembling girl 
to a court of ignorant and superstitious French ecclesiastics, with 
a bishop at their head, who condemned her to be burnt alive as a 
witch and a woman who had worn men’s clothes—meaning armor. 
Surrounded by human wolves, in the form of English knights and 
French priests, that spotless girl was consumed in the market¬ 
place at Rouen on the 30th of May, 1431. Her ashes were cast 
into the Seine and borne to the sea. No voice, not even that of 
her king, whose crown she had won for him, was lifted in her 
favor until ten years afterward, when Charles ventured to call her 
a martyr. 1 Long years afterw r ards a statue was erected to her me¬ 
mory on the spot where she perished; and only a few years ago 
Pope Pius the Ninth canonized her as a saint. 

§ 8. To try to stem the rising feeling in favor of Charles, Bed¬ 
ford carried his young nephew over to Paris, and had him crowned 
king of that realm in November, 1431, though he was only in the 
eleventh year of his age. But the solemn farce was ineffectual. 
It was soon seen that to hope to really subdue and hold the whole 
of France was a mere delusion. Conferences therefore were held, 
but they did not procure peace, as neither party would make any 
considerable concession to the other. Bedford’s death, which 
occurred in 1435, soon after a quarrel with the Duke of Burgundy, 
was followed by the capture of Paris by the French, and the siege 
of Calais by Philip the Good, and a rising in Normandy. The 
Duke of York, who had succeeded Bedford as governor, and de¬ 
sired the English crown for his own family, ravaged the country 
up to the gates of Paris, and Gloucester drove his former rival 
from Calais. The Duke of Burgundy’s territories were, in turn, 
invaded, and he was soon obliged to agree to a truce, when con¬ 
ferences for a peace with the French were again opened, but again 
without success. 

1 So bitter was the feeling of the English against Jeanne Dare that they caused a 
poor woman to be burnt to death in Paris for merely saying that the heroine acted 
under the inspiration of God. 


THE PLANTAGENETS. 


257 


CnAPTER XIII.] 

France freed from Invaders. Tlie English lose Normandy. 

§ 0. For the next ten years [1489-1449] affairs took a course 
that steadily tended to free France from its invaders. The gov¬ 
ernors of the English possessions were repeatedly changed; but in 
spite of the valor of the Duke of York, the Earl of Warwick, and 
Lord Talbot, those possessions grew less and less every year. At 
last a truce was concluded with France [April, 1444], which was 
renewed from time to time, being meant to be used as a means for 
securing Normandy, if nothing more, when war should again break 
out. The truce was negotiated by the Earbof Suffolk, and so dis¬ 
tasteful had war now become that it would seem he was empowered 
to take any step that he thought necessary to preserve peace. 
Accordingly, during its continuance he arranged a marriage for 
the king with a French princess* and to obtain the consent of 
King Charles he promised to give up the provinces of Anjou and 
Maine, which he thought of much less consequence than Normandy. 
The lady was Margaret of Anjou, the daughter of Rene, who was 
nominally king of Naples, Sicily, and Jerusalem, but possessed 
none of them, and was in reality a mere dependent on his kinsman 
the King of France, to whom he made over all that Suffolk aban¬ 
doned. The garrisons of these provinces, being dismissed with¬ 
out pay, ravaged the adjoining country, on which the French 
king, declaring the truce broken, invaded Normandy, and very 
speedily completed its conquest, in the year 1449. 

§ 10. Henry the Fifth had captured almost every town that he 
attacked with his great bombards, which threw heavy stones ; but 
since his time Master Jean, a countryman of Jeanne Dare, had 
discovered that guns of far less size would do much more mis¬ 
chief if loaded with iron balls; and his discovery did quite as 
much to liberate France as all her courage and patriotism. The 
French had with them many of these cannons, which were so small 
that they could easily be removed from place to place, and the 
shot from them forced towns to surrender in a few days that had 
formerly held out for months against the victor of xYgincourt. 
The Duke of Somerset was the governor when Normandy was 
lost, and he was accused of defending Caen too feebly, being 
alarmed for the safety of his wife and children, who were within 
its walls. 

§ 11. With the king’s marriage with Margaret of Anjou, in the 
year 1445, an entire change in his reign took place. He had 
never as yet interfered in any way in public affairs (for which his 


25S 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 


[Book Y. 

Queen Margaret and her Influence. Government in England and Ireland. 

youth was a sufficient reason), and nothing had occurred beyond 
the ceaseless quarrels of his uncles, and the gradual loss of his 
father’s conquests. Indeed he did not, even at the age of twenty- 
four years, possess the spirit of a man, or show sufficient ability to 
take care of his own affairs. It was hoped that his spirited queen 
might in some degree supply his deficiencies. And so she did, 
but not happily for the realm. 

§ 12. Margaret was a woman of beauty and spirit, and she at 
once took the part in politics that her husband should have as¬ 
sumed. She chose for her adviser the Earl of Suffolk (to whom 
her marriage was owing), and being received with great favor by 
the Cardinal, a she was of course hated by the Duke 

§ 1, p. 25 o. ^ Q.l ouce ster, who set himself to work to render her 
and her minister (who was invidiously styled her favorite) un¬ 
popular. This he failed to do. Suffolk was publicly thanked in 
parliament for bringing about the truce with France; and soon 
afterward Gloucester was seized at a parliament at Bury St. Ed¬ 
mund’s on a charge of treason. Whether he was guilty or not 
was never proved, as he was found dead in his bed before he 
could be brought to trial. Cardinal Beaufort died in less than 
two months afterward. Suffolk was then made a duke; but all 
his popularity came to a sudden close when the loss of Normandy 
was known. He was impeached by the House of Commons, and 
sentenced to banishment, but was seized at sea [a.d. 1450] and 
beheaded, without any form of trial, by order of the constable of 
the Tower. That constable was John Holland, Duke of Exeter, 
a man of violent character, who is said to have devised the rack 
to torture his prisoners ; whence that fearful instrument was popu¬ 
larly known as “ The Duke of Exeter’s daughter.” 

§ 13. The Duke of York, who had been one of the most suc¬ 
cessful of the English governors of Normandy, expressed great 
anger at the loss of the province, and he was therefore sent, in a 
kind of honorable banishment, to Ireland, as lord lieutenant [a.d. 
1449], where he gained the favor of all parties by his wise and 
firm government. He was the grandson of that Roger Mortimer, 
Earl of March, who had been declared heir to the crown in the 
time of Richard the Second, b but up to this time he 

l) o p 223 7 A 

had served the Lancastrian king, and seemed to have 
forgotten his own unquestionable right to the throne. He had 
friends, however, who were not likely to undervalue the advan- 


Chapter XIII.] THE PLANTAGENETS. 259 

An Aspirant for the British Crown. The Nevilles. Jack Cade’s Insurrection. 

tage of having a king of their own choosing on the throne, and 
they took their measures accordingly, though at first they felt 
obliged to proceed very cautiously. They knew that it would be 
useless to bring his claims directly forward, as King Henry was a 
great favorite with the people* from his merciful character and 
his pious, blameless life. They therefore, instead, confined them¬ 
selves to loud complaints of the “ evil government ” of the queen 
and her ministers (first Suffolk, then Somerset), and everywhere 
pointed to the duke’s rule in Ireland as showing that he alone 
was the suitable man to assist their dear lord the king, and pre¬ 
serve his realm from the traitors who had caused 

a § 10, p. 257. 

the loss of France. a . 

§ 14. Foremost among these friends were Richard Neville the 
father, and Richard Neville the son, both men of great ability. 
The father was a grandson of John of Gaunt, and had become 
Earl of Salisbury by marrying the daughter of the earl who 
was killed at Orleans. b The Duke of York was his 

b § 4, p. 254. 

brother-in-law. The son had married the heiress of 
the Earl of Warwick, and received that title about the same time 
when his uncle York was sent to Ireland. Warwick, afterwards 
so well known as “ the Kingmaker,” though quite a young man, 
was even more active and energetic than liis father. His wife’s 
great riches enabled him to keep a larger train of dependants than 
most other nobles of his time, whilst his courtesy and cheerful 
manner to the poor, aided by lavish hospitality, made him a kind 
of King of the Commons. 

§ 15. York remained in Ireland whilst his friends labored in 
his cause and their own, and Suffolk became more and more 
unpopular. He was banished and put to death; but even this 
did not allay the discontent, for in less than a month afterward 
there occurred a formidable rising of the people in Kent, who 
assembled on Blackheath, under the command of one Jack Cade, 
an Irishman “of goodly stature and pregnant wit,” who pre¬ 
tended to be a kinsman of the Duke of York, and demanded 
the redress of many grievances. They met with a haughty re¬ 
fusal, and an order to disperse. They retired to Seven Oaks, 
where they defeated and killed Sir Humphrey Stafford, who was 
sent against them. They next repaired to London, where they 
beheaded Lord Say and Sele, the treasurer, who had been a 
devoted adherent of the Duke of Suffolk. Then their leader 


260 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 


[Book V. 

Preparations for Civil War. The last English possession in France. 

repaired to tlie London stone, and striking it with his sword, 
exclaimed, “ Now is Mortimer lord of this city! ” This name, 
Mortimer, alluded to the Duke of York, and the insurrection had 
the desired effect of preparing the way for his claiming the crown 
at the first favorable opportunity. The rebels were at length got 
out of London, after a fierce fight on the bridge, and they then 
dispersed on promise of pardon ; but their leader was killed a few 
days afterward in Sussex. 

§ 16. Scarcely had this commotion subsided when the Duke of 
Somerset succeeded to Suffolk’s place in the direction of affairs, 
and soon became quite as unpopular. He already bore the blame 
of the loss of Normandy, and now, whilst he ruled at home, Gas¬ 
cony, the sole remaining province, which had been held by Eng¬ 
land for more than 400 years, was overrun by the French. En¬ 
raged at this, the Duke of York left his government in Ireland, 
summoned his friends, and took up arms, insisting that Somerset 
should be brought to trial. This was promised; but when, in con¬ 
sequence, York had dismissed his forces, he was treacherously 
thrown into prison. A public clamor caused his speedy release. 
He then retired to his strong castle of Wigmore, in the Welsh 
marches, where he remained quietly collecting his strength for 
another struggle. 

§ 17. In the mean time the famous Lord Talbot was sent to re¬ 
conquer Gascony; but after capturing Bordeaux he was aban¬ 
doned by the Gascons, who had asked for his help, and was 
defeated and killed by the French. Of all the English con¬ 
quests, Calais a only remained in the year 1453. 

§ 13, p. ~io. g carce jy kad this evil news arrived when the king 
fell ill, and it was found absolutely necessary to appoint a “ Pro¬ 
tector.” This post, by common accord, was given to the Duke of 
York. Somerset was at once deprived of his various offices, and 
sent to the Tower on a charge of treason; but the king soon 
recovered, when he revoked York’s commission and recalled 
Somerset. An attempt was made to reconcile the two potent 
nobles, but it was in vain, and the first battle of the War of the 
Roses, as it is known in history, speedily followed. 

§ 18. The captainship of Calais, which was a very important 
post, was one of the offices that had been taken from Somerset 
and bestowed on York, who, according to Ills patent, was to hold 
it for seven years; but on the king’s recovery he was deprived of 


Chapteb XIII.] THE PLANTAGENETS. 


261 


Civil War in England. 

it. York now took up arms and marclied towards London; 
Somerset set forward to meet him, taking the king with him. 
The armies, which were of nearly equal strength, met at St. Al¬ 
ban’s [May 22, 1455], when, after a desperate fight in the streets, 
the Yorkists prevailed. The Duke of Somerset, the Earl of Nor¬ 
thumberland, Lord Stafford, Lord Clifford, and about 5,000 more 
were killed, including several of the king’s household, and he 
himself was wounded in the throat by an arrow. The loss of the 
Yorkists was very much less. A parliament soon followed, when 
a general pardon was granted. The captainship of Calais was 
given to Warwick, and on the king again falling ill, the Duke of 
York was a second time named Protector. This, however, en¬ 
dured a shorter time than before. The king on his recovery again 
revoked the duke’s commission, and the Yorkist party repaired to 
their estates, where they remained for a while, taking no part in 
public affairs. The young Duke of Somerset succeeded to his 
father’s place in the confidence of the queen, and she had an able 
general in the Duke of Buckingham (grandson of the Duke of 
Gloucester in the time of Richard the Second, 41 and a g c p 219 
the cousin of Sir Humphrey Stafford, who was killed 
at Seven Oaks), who had long served in the French wars. 

§ 19. Whilst the country was thus distracted by civil dissension 
the French availed themselves of its weakness. They landed on 
several parts of the English coast [a.d. 1457], and plundered and 
burnt Sandwich, then one of the principal ports of the realm. 
The murmurs at this public disgrace at last compelled the hostile 
parties to profess a reconciliation, and accordingly on Lady-day 
(March 25), in the year 1458, the chiefs repaired to St. Paul’s, and 
were there publicly “made friends.” The Duke of York led the 
queen by the hand, and the rest followed in order, a Yorkist and 
a Lancastrian walking together; “ but though their bodies were 
joined hand in hand,” says the old chronicler, “their hearts were 
far asunder.” The citizens of London kept an armed watch to 
prevent the retainers of the different nobles from falling to blows; 
but this could not extend to the court, where the life of the Earl 
of Warwick was endangered in a sudden quarrel which the queen 
was thought to have provoked. 

§ 20. Whilst Warwick was one day at the palace, a servant of 
his was attacked and wounded by one of the royal cooks, and 
called loudly for help. Warwick, who always declared that his 


962 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book Y, 

War of the White and Red Roses. The Yorkists Dispersed. 

meanest retainer was as dear to him as a brother, hastened to the 
rescue, when he was assailed by the whole body of cooks and 
scullions, and had some difficulty in cutting his way through them, 
carrying his w T ounded comrade with him. An attempt was made 
to represent the affray as a mere accident, common enough in those 
times, but the Yorkists believed that it was part of a plot against 
their lives, and left the court in haste. 

§ 21. A renewal of the war was now seen to be inevitable, and 
the whole country became divided into the two factions of the 
White and the Red Rose. The first was the badge of the Yorkists, 
who were most powerful in the North (though the Percys were 
there their opponents), in the Welsh marches, in Kent, and in Lon¬ 
don ; they also had possession of Calais, with a navy in its port. 
The Lancastrian badge was the Red Rose, and they were the 
strongest party in the centre and west of England. These badges 
gave the name of “War of the Roses” a to the con- 

8 * 17, p ‘ 2G °‘ fiicts in England at that period. 

§ 22. A year passed in these preparations, by which time the 
Duke of York had gathered a large army around him at Ludlow, 
many of them being veteran soldiers brought from Calais by 
Warwick. The Earl of Salisbury, on his way to join them, 
defeated and killed [Sept. 1459] the Lancastrian leader, Lord 
Audley, at Blore-heath, in Staffordshire; but the queen raised a 
new army, under the Dukes of Somerset and Buckingham, and 
marched with them herself to Ludlow. Sir Andrew Trollope, one 
of the knights from Calais, went over to the royal army, when 
the duke’s forces were seized with a panic, and dispersed upon a 
promise of pardon. The leaders fled, some to Ireland, some to 
Calais, and in a parliament that was held shortly after, at Coven¬ 
try [Nov. 20, 1459], they were all attainted. 

§ 23. But, though thus suddenly dispersed, the Yorkists had no 
intention of giving up the contest. Those in Calais not only 
repulsed an attack by the Duke of Somerset, but, having ships at 
their command, came over to Sandwich and seized Lord Rivers, 
who was there fitting out a fleet against them. They in fact 
became pirates, captured any ships that they met with, and extorted 
ransoms from Lancastrians who dwelt near the coast; and in the 
summer of 1460 they landed at Sandwich by the invitation of the 
people, who joined them in crowds. They entered London in 
triumph, the queen and her friends fleeing before them. At 


263 


Chapter XIII] THE PLANTAGENETS. 

Duke of York claims the Crown. His Fall. Perils of the Queen. 

Northampton the fugitives were overtaken and totally defeated. 
The Duke of Buckingham, the queen’s general, was killed, the 
king was taken prisoner, and the queen fled with her young son, a 
child of five years old, to Scotland. 

§ 24. The Duke of York now returned from Ireland and for¬ 
mally laid claim to the crown. His right could not be denied; but 
no one wished to deal harshly with the meek king, who, in his 
simplicity, pleaded that as his father and grandfather had been 
kings, it would be unreasonable to take the royal title from him. 
The parliament acted in this spirit, agreeing that he should retain 
the crown for his life, but that the Duke of York should succeed 
him, and should administer the government in the mean time. 
Henry, whose soul shrank from war and bloodshed, willingly ac¬ 
cepted this arrangement, but his queen would not hear of the disher¬ 
ison of her son. She raised a fresh army in the north by the help of 
the Percys, and when the Duke of York marched to oppose her, 
he was defeated and killed at Wakefield. The spiteful queen caused 
his head to be raised over a gate at York, with a paper crown 
upon it; and with real blood-thirstiness she pursued his family. 
His youngest son, the Earl of Rutland, a youth of seventeen, was 
murdered in cold blood by Lord Clifford, whose father had been 
killed at St, Alban’s; and the Earl of Salisbury and several other 
noble prisoners were beheaded the next day at Pontefract. 

§ 25. The queen now marched towards London, with an army 
of fierce northern men; but ere she reached it another battle had 
taken place at Mortimer’s Cross [Feb. 1, 1461], near the Yorkist 
castle of Wigmore, where Edward, Earl of March, and the young 
Duke of York defeated the Earl of Pembroke (who was the half- 
brother of King Henry), and revenged the death of his father and 
uncle by beheading many of his prisoners on the field. The queen, 
undaunted by this mishap, pushed on, defeated the Earl of War¬ 
wick at St. Alban’s, and rescued King Henry from his custody. 
The citizens of London, however, partly from favor to the House 
of York and partly from fear of plunder, refused to admit her 
within their walls, and she was obliged to retire to Yorkshire, tak¬ 
ing her husband with her. 

§ 26. The young Duke of York, who had marched for London 
immediately after his victory, was joyfully received. His title 
was explained to the citizens assembled in St. John’s Fields by 
Lord Falconbridge [March 1, 1461], a Neville and one of his 


264 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book V. 

The young Duke of York made King. Henry’s Restoration and Death. 

uncles, and accepted by them. On the following day he went to 
Westminster, where he was acknowledged as king by such peers, 
prelates, and chief citizens as could be hastily assembled, and 
who, of course, belonged to the Yorkist party. His solemn instal¬ 
lation, on the 4th of March, in Westminster Abbey, when he took 
the title of Edward the Fourth, brought the reign of the feeble 
Henry to a close, though he lived many years afterward; and the 
new king had several fierce battles to fight before he could feel 
himself safely established on the throne. 

§ 27. Henry was restored by the Earl of Warwick in 1470, but 
his seven months’ reign was merely nominal. He died in the 
Tower, about the end of May, 1471, very shortly after the death 
of his son at Tewkesbury. His piety and charity endeared him to 
his subjects, and his sufferings caused him to be popularly re¬ 
garded as a saint; but he was quite unfit for the position of a 
ruler, and his long reign was one continued scene of factious 
quarrels at home, and loss and humiliation abroad. Unlike his 
father and grandfather, he was of a weak and feeble body and a 
timorous nature, which exposed him to the ill-concealed contempt 
of his warlike nobles, who required a strong hand to keep them 
in order. 


CHAPTER XIV. 

reign of Edward tiie Fourth, [a.d. 1461 to 1483.] 

§ 1. The n w king, the eldest surviving son of Richard Duke 
of York,* was only in his twentieth year when he 
• § 24, p- 263. came £ 0 {j ie throne, on the 4tli of March, 1461; but in 
decision of character and celerity of action he was equal to any 
veteran soldier. He was not allowed to stay in his capital to 
enjoy the pageant and festivity of a coronation; but in a week 
after he had been received ‘into London he was on his march 
against the Lancastrians, and before the end of a month he gave 
them a terrible overthrow at Towton, in Yorkshire, when many of 
his chief opponents were left dead on the field, others were taken 
and executed, and Henry and his queen, with their son, were com¬ 
pelled to seek refuge in Scotland, surrendering the town of Ber- 



Chapter XIV.] THE PLANTAGENETS. 265 

Civil War. Warwick and his Kinsmen. Lord of the Isles. 

wick as the price of their entertainment. Edward followed them 
as far as Newcastle, and then returning to London he was crowned, 
on the 28th June, 1461, less than a year having elapsed since he 
had landed at Sandwich. But in the interval, short as it was, no 
less than five desperate battles had been fought, at such widely 
different places as Northampton, Wakefield, Mortimer’s Cross, St. 
Alban’s, and Towton. 

§ 2. The Lancastrians were now crushed in the field, and attain¬ 
der and confiscation followed. The parliament declared the Lan¬ 
castrian princes to have been usurpers, and that the late Duke of 
York had been “in his life very king in right of the realm of 
England.” And they also declared that all whom the new king 
“held or reputed for his rebels or enemies” should lie at his 
mercy. He took full advantage of this, and transferred lands and 
privileges and offices to such an extent to his active supporters, 
that hundreds of rich men who were only suspected of favoring 
the Lancastrian cause were reduced to poverty, whilst the knights 
and nobles that fell into his hands were executed without mercy. 
The Earl of Warwick 4 and his kin reaped the full 
benefit of all these changes. Warwick himself had 8 ^ 14, P ‘ 259 ‘ 
succeeded to his father’s earldom of Salisbury, and desired no 
higher title; he was therefore rewarded with numerous estates 
taken from the Percys and others, the grants to him amounting to 
as much as £200,000, or $1,000,000 a year of our jjresent money, 
in gold. Of Warwick’s brothers, one was made Earl of Kent; 
another, Archbishop of York and Lord Chancellor; and a third, 
Lord Montagu, whose success in the field soon won for him the 
earldom of Northumberland. 

§ 3. At this time the King of Scotland (James the Tim'd) was a 
child, and the regents professed themselves unable to give any 
effectual support to King Henry, although they were quite able to 
keep Berwick. Edward, in return, intrigued with the 

. ° b c 9 p. 2. 

Lord of the Isles (the Hebrides b ) and other Scottish 
nobles, with the view of partitioning the country between himself 
and them. Queen Margaret c passed over to France, c ^ ^ 

and by the promise of delivering up Calais if it should ’ P ’ 
ever be in her power, procured a small body of French troops. 
They were, however, sliipwrecked on the coast of Northumberland. 
She until difficulty escaped into Scotland, and the Lancastrian 
cause tlr n appeared, so utterly hopeless that even the Duke of 
12 


266 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book Y. 

Queen Margaret invades England. End of the War of the Roses. 

Somerset abandoned it, and earned his pardon by surrendering the 
strong castle of Bamborough in 1463. 

§ 4. Margaret, however, was not daunted. In the course of a 
year she had gained fresh troops from France, and when, in the 
spring of 1464, she again appeared in England, Bamborough, Aln¬ 
wick, and other castles were surrendered to her, and Somerset, the 
Percys, and most of her northern adherents again joined her. The 
Scots and French who accompanied her plundered the country most 
mercilessly, and the rising appeared so serious that Edward sent 
Warwick H and his brother Montagu against them by 
a § 14, p. 259. land , whilst he prepare d a fleet at Lynn which was 

meant to retaliate on Scotland. But before he could sail he received 
the news that Montagu had defeated the Lancastrians, first at 
Iledgley Moor and then at Hexham, killing or capturing the prin¬ 
cipal leaders. The queen fled with her son to Flanders, and King 
Henry repaired to Lancashire, where he lived for more than two 
years hidden among his friends, but was then betrayed, and brought 
to London a prisoner. Somerset and Sir Ralph Grey, wflio had 
surrendered Bamborough, were executed. Warwick recovered 
Berwick, and ravaged the Scottish border as far as Galloway; 
whilst the terror of Edward’s fleet obliged the Scots to bind them¬ 
selves to give no further countenance to the Lancastrians. 

§ 5. The king was now apparently firmly settled on the throne; 
but a marriage that he entered into gave deep offence not only to 
his brothers Clarence and Gloucester, who were youths of a spirit 
as aspiring as his own, but to his especial champion, Warwick. 
The earl had been sent abroad to treat for marriage with Bona of 
Savoy, the sister of the French queen, and the proffer had been 
accepted, when he learnt that the king had, in his absence, secretly 
married Elizabeth Grey (whose maiden name was Woodville), the 
widow of a knight who had been killed at St, Alban’s fighting on 
the Lancastrian side, to which party all her family belonged. Her 
mother was Jaqueline of Flanders, the widow of the 

b § l, p. 253. p iike of g e( jf or( j 9 b anc [ her father was that Richard 

Woodville, Lord Rivers, who had been captured'at Sandwich by 
the Yorkists from Calais when fitting out a fleet 

c 8 28, p. 262. 

against them. 0 

§ 6. The new queen had five brothers and five sisters, all of 
'whom she brought to court with her, as well as her father, her 
mother, and her two sons; and the king was so lavish of his favors 


CHArTER XIV.] THE PLANTAGENETS. 267 

The New Queen's Family. Warwick’s Generosity. His defence of the King. 

to them that those who had placed him on the throne regarded 
themselves both injured and insulted. Lord Rivers was made an 
earl, and his eldest grandson a marquis; but still more offence was 
given by the means taken to enrich the new-comers, by forcing 
wealthy heirs and heiresses into marriage with them. Thomas, the 
queen’s son, though only thirteen, was married to the infant 
daughter of the Duke of Exeter, who was the king’s niece; John, 
one of her brothers, a youth of eighteen, was forced as a husband 
cm the rich dowager duchess of Norfolk, who had been a widow 
for thirty years. Wealthy marriages were made for all her sisters 
(one became Duchess of Buckingham); but, worst of all, the 
daughter of Lord Scales, who was esteemed the richest heiress in 
the kingdom, was given to Anthony, another brother, though she 
was attached to the young Duke of Clarence, and was his promised 
bride. Gloucester, who was of a far more vehement and decided 
character than Clarence, warmly supported his brother’s cause. 
Warwick and his kinsmen joined the youths, and in a short time 
the court was rent by the factions of the Nevilles a 
and the Woodvilles. a § 14 ’ p - 259 - 

§ 7. Warwick was an especial object of dislike to the queen and 
her kinsmen, who were all poor, arid bent only on making money, 
whilst he was the richest subject in the kingdom, and of a liberal 
disposition, so that wherever he had an estate there he fed the 
poor. And when he came to London, the chronicler says that any 
one who chose might repair daily to his kitchen, and not only 
refresh himself, but carry away as much boiled or roast meat for 
his family as he could bear off upon his long dagger. No wonder, 
then, that we hear of six oxen being consumed at a meal. 

§ 8. Edward endeavored to destroy this influence by attempt¬ 
ing to depress the Nevilles. He threatened to resume the vast 
grants that he had made to them, b took the chancel¬ 
lor’s seal from the archbishop, and began to give b § 2 ’ p ‘ 265 ‘ 
hopes to the Percys that Lord Montagu should be made to sur¬ 
render their earldom. But he did not know the energetic men 
that he had to deal with, until those who had made him king had 
unmade him. 

§ 9. Warwick’s first step was to take his eldest daughter, Isabel, 
over to Calais, where they were joined by Clarence, when the young 
people were married [a.d. 1460] by the displaced archbishop. 
They then returned to England, assembled an army in the north, 


268 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book Y. 

Warwick and Queen Margaret. Restoration of King Henry. 

and having defeated the royal troops at Edgecote, captured and 
beheaded the queen’s father and his son John, as well as William 
Herbert, who had been recently made Earl of Pembroke by the 
influence of the Woodvilles. Another rising, however, having 
been suppressed by the king, Warwick and Clarence went to 
France, and were reconciled to Margaret of Anjou a 
0 § 3, p. 265. ky. promising to restore King Henry to his throne. 
As a proof of his good faith, Warwick married his daughter 
Ann e to the young Prince Edward, in the year 1470. 

§ 10. But now Clarence became dissatisfied, as he wished to 
become king himself, and therefore he secretly sent to his brother 
Edward, assuring him of his intention to rejoin him at the first 
opportunity. This was unknown to Warwick, and they landed 
together at Dartmouth in the autumn of 1470. Margaret and her 
son Edward were to follow with more troops, but bad weather 
detained them until the next spring, and they arrived too late to 
be of any service. The Duke of Exeter, who was Edward’s 
brother-in-law, Edmund Duke of Somerset, and John Earl of 
Oxford, who had each lost a father and a brother in the war, 
joined them, with the people of the west country, who were gene¬ 
rally favorers of the Lancastrian cause. 

§ 11.. Edward prepared to march against them, but found him¬ 
self suddenly deserted by Lord Montagu, b and was 
b § 4 ’ p ‘ 266 ‘ obliged to seek refuge in Flanders, with the Duke of 
Burgundy, who was his brother-in-law. His brother the Duke of 
Gloucester, his brother-in-law Lord Scales, and his favorite, Lord 
Hastings, accompanied him, but he had very few others with him, 
and they narrowly escaped capture by pirates on their passage. 
His queen took sanctuary at Westminster, and there, very soon 
afterward, her eldest son was bom, who became the unhappy Ed¬ 
ward the Fifth. Warwick and Clarence marched to London 
without an hour’s delay, released King Henry from 
c § p- ~ b4 - £| ie q' ower> c and conducted him in solemn procession 
to St. Paul’s, where he returned thanks for his restoration; but 
Warwick took care to keep all real power in his own hands. 

§ 12. A parliament w r as held early in the year 1471, when of 
course the Yorkists were attainted and the Lancastrians restored. 
The crown was settled anew on King Henry and his son, with only 
a distant chance of succession to Clarence, who grew more and 
more dissatisfied daily, and ceased not to urge his brother to re- 


209 


Chapter XIV.] THE PLANTAGENETS. 

Edward of York’s triumphant Entrance into London. 

turn. Tliis Edward soon did, the Duke of Burgundy having sup¬ 
plied him with money and ships, and 2,000 soldiers, among whom 
were some who were armed with liand-guns (then a new invention), 
which proved as serviceable against the archers as rifles when 
opposed to flint-lock muskets at the present day. He landed at 
Havenspur, at the mouth of the Humber, the same spot as Henry 
of Bolingbroke had arrived at ; a and, like him, he a § 33 p 266 
scrupled not to take an oath that he had no design 
to claim the crown, but only sought the restoration of his family 
estates. He marched forward, his force increasing daily, and 
when he reached Nottingham he thought himself strong enough 
to drop the mask; but, from pretended regard for his oath, he 
descended to a paltry stratagem. Sir John Stanley and a strong 
body of Lancashire men came to meet him, and inquired his pur¬ 
pose. He replied, only to obtain grace of his good lord King 
Henry and his fair son, whose ostrich plume he wore in his cap. 
Stanley answered, “We serve none less than a king; therefore we 
bid you adieu, unless you pluck out that feather and claim your 
own.”—“Imay not say you nay, fair friends,” was the reply, and 
the Yorkist badge of the “sun in splendor” was quickly substi¬ 
tuted. Clarence joined him a few days after, decamping in the 
night from Warwick’s army, and thus defeating the “King¬ 
maker's” plan of fighting his opponent before he could reach the 
capital. London opened its gates to Edward in spite of the 
efforts of Archbishop Neville, who had been left in charge of the 
king, and vainly paraded him through the streets, seeking for 
supporters. The Londoners had always been favorers of the 
House of York. Not a sword was lifted in favor of “ the lord 
Henry of Lancaster; ” and he was again sent to the Tower. 

§ 13. Warwick had still with him his brother Montagu, who 
had been deprived of the earldom of Northumberland and con¬ 
sidered his higher title of marquis no compensation. He said 
that Edward had given him a grand name, with only a pie’s nest 
to keep it, and, though he had been wavering before, he would 
now fight stoutly to mend his fortune with his sword. Warwick 
scarcely believed him, but could not venture to part with him, as 
his forces were mainly Lancastrians, and not so strong as the army 
that Edward had. Stiff he was resolved to put everything on the 
issue of a battle, and he moved on to the neighborhood of Lon¬ 
don. Edward, only three days after he had sent Henry to the 


270 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book Y. 

Battle of Barnet. Death of Warwick. Henry again deposed. 

Tower, marched out* to meet him, taking “ the gray, discrowned 
king ” with him. 

§ 14 The hosts met at Barnet, about twelve miles from London, 
on the eve of Easter Sunday [a.d. 1471]. Edward drew a trench 
round his camp, and annoyed his enemies during the night by 
keeping up a fire from his hand-guns, which they could not 
return. & Bodies of Londoners also kept joining him, whilst no 
one came to Warwick, whose troops grew dispirited, and having 
long been opponents, had little confidence in each other. The 
battle began at dawn of day, and, owing to Warwick’s example, 
was fiercely maintained for many hours. Edward also exposed his 
life as freely, his brother Gloucester leading the van, but Clarence, 
for very shame, doing little. At last what appeared a mere acci¬ 
dent gave the victory to Edward. The day was dark and stoimy, 
and the badge of the Earl of Oxford’s men was mistaken for that of 
the king, which it greatly resembled. They were in consequence 
attacked by Warwick’s men, and fearing some treachery, they fled 
from the field. Edward saw his advantage, and by a desperate 
charge gained the day. Warwick, contrary to his usual plan, 
fought on foot, to encourage his troops, saying, “ I will stand 
with him that will stand with me.” It was his last battle, for he 
was left dead on the field. His brother Montagu died also, 
though not so honorably, as he was killed by one of Warwick’s 
men, who saw him throw away the badge of them party and put 
on that of the king, whom he was about to join. 

§ 15. Full 10,000 men fell in this battle, but most of the Lan¬ 
castrian leaders escaped with their lives. The Duke of Exeter 
was left wounded on the field, but was conveyed to the sanctuaiy 
at Westminster, where his wounds were healed. His wife bar¬ 
barously opposed the pardon that Edward was ready to grant, 1 
and having left his asylum he was found dead soon afterwards. 
The bodies of Warwick and his brother were exposed to public 
view at St. Paul’s, to convince every one that the famous “ King¬ 
maker ” was indeed dead; but there was still another battle to be 
fought before peace could be restored. King Henry was again 

i He had been attainted in 1461, and had long wandered on the Continent in a state 
of extreme poverty. His wife wished to procure a divorce, but this her uncle, the 
Archbishop of Canterbury, would not grant, saying that it was no reason because a 
man had lost his estates that his wife should forsake him. She married immediately 
after his death, but did not long survive him. 


271 


Chapter XIV.] THE PLANT AGENETS. 

Queen Margaret and her Adherents. They make War. The Lancastrians Destroyed. 

sent to the Tower, and never quitted it alive, for he died, probably 
of grief, a few months afterwards. 

§ 16. Queen Margaret landed at Weymouth on the very day 
that the battle of Barnet was fought, and on hearing of its result 
her fortitude gave way. She took refuge with her son in the 
sanctuary of Ceme Abbey, and was apparently resolved to give 
up the unequal contest. Unhappily, the Duke of Somerset and 
some of the other nobles who had escaped when Warwick fell 
found out her retreat, and persuaded her that if they could once 
reach South Wales they might renew the contest, as her husband’s 
half-brothers, the Tudors, had powerful fiiends there. The Earl 
of Pembroke (Jasper Tudor) accordingly began raising forces in 
Wales, and Margaret and her army set out to join him. They 
endeavored in vain to cross the Severn at Gloucester, for the citi¬ 
zens guarded the bridge; on w T hich they ascended the river to 
Tewkesbury, where Edward overtook them. Somerset, contrary 
to the advice of the rest, determined to make a stand here, and 
drew a trench round his camp. This was vigorously assaulted by 
the Yorkists [May, 1471], led by Gloucester, who, finding it des¬ 
perately defended, purposely withdrew his men in apparent con¬ 
fusion. Somerset followed him, but not being properly supported, 
was driven back, the foe entering with him, and soon gaining a 
complete victory. Somerset, believing that he had been treacher¬ 
ously deserted by Lord Wenlock, a man who had changed sides 
more than once, and was now in command of troops that he had 
kept idle in camp, flew on him and dashed out his brains with his 
battle-axe. But though he thus avenged himself, he could not 
restore the battle, which gave the final blow to the Lancastrian 
cause. Queen Margaret was taken prisoner and sent to the 
Tower, where she remained for four years, until ransomed by her 
father, who obtained the money from the King of France (Louis 
the Eleventh) by surrendering to him his county of Anjou. Her 
husband and son being then both dead, she had no motive for 
attempting to renew the contest. Margaret lived in extreme pov¬ 
erty for the rest of her days, and died in 1481. 

§ 17. Edward showed his usual mercilessness after victory. 
Young Prince Edward met his death, but w T hether he was murdered 
in the royal tent, as most authors say, or was killed in attempting 
to escape from the field, is uncertain. But there is no such doubt 
as to the fate of the Duke of Somerset, the Prior of St. John s, Sii 


272 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book V. 

Edward’s Cruelty and Avarice. Confiscations and Extortions. 

Humphrey Audley, and about a dozen more knights, who, having 
taken refuge in a church, were dragged from it two days after¬ 
ward and beheaded, although the king had promised to spare 
their lives, and had thus prevented their taking sanctuary. 
Pembroke fled to Brittany, taking his young nephew the 
Earl of Richmond, with him. The death of Lord Falcon- 
bridge,® who was Warwick’s admiral, and the surren- 
a § 26, P. 253. der ® f the Earl of Oxford, 1 2 which followed soon 

after relieved Edward from any further apprehension of war, and 
left him free to indulge his thirst for gold, which was almost as 
strong as his love of bloodshed and his taste for vicious pleasures. 

§ 18. An almost absolute confiscation of all that remained of 
wealth to the Lancastrians was decreed by the parliament, and 
Edward of his own accord plundered and imprisoned Archbishop 
Neville, breaking up his rich mitre to place the jewels in his own 
crown. But he wasted his riches quite as fast as he acquired 
them, and when, in the third year after the close of the civil war 
[a.d. 1473], he announced his design of attempting the conquest 
of France, he raised funds in a novel manner. He called all the 
wealthy people before him, told them of his project, and, with the 
gracious manner that he could assume when he pleased, though a 
mere savage at heart, he begged them to give him some sum that 
he named, as a proof of their “ benevolence” or good-will towards 
him. Few were found hardy enough to refuse, particularly if they 
had ever been Lancastrians, and thus a large sum was raised, which 
was termed a Benevolence; but those who dared to speak their 
minds called it a Malevolence, as being a mere extortion, sub¬ 
mitted to unwillingly for fear of worse consequences. 3 

1 In earlier times every church, or even churchyard, was regarded as a sanctuary or 
sacred asylum, but the privilege was now limited to a comparatively few great abbeys. 

2 After the battle of Barnet a he obtained some ships, with which he seized on St. 

Michael’s Mount, in Cornwall, where he defended himself for four months. 

a § 14, p. 270. ^ lagt SUIX endered on promise of life, and was sent to the castle of 
Hammes, in Picardy, where he remained for twelve years. His wife, who was Warwick’s 
sister it'is said supported herself by her needle, until at last the king granted her a 
pension of £100 (equal to £1,000 now), and this ltichard the Third continued to her. 

3 The pretence for the “benevolence” was, that it fell only on rich people, and thus 
spared the poor; but Henry the Seventh and Henry the Eighth, who also frequently 
levied it, used it as a test of men’s liking for or fear of them; hence, if any one refused 
he was accounted disaffected, and his ruin was certain. At length the very name 
became odious, and “a loving contribution made by the subject’s free-will” took its 

place. 


Chapter XIV.] THE PLANTAGENETS. 


273 


Edward’s failure in France. An inglorious Reign. Plots and Murders. 

§ 19. At last, in July, 1475, Edward left England, landed at 
Calais with a large army, and formally demanded the crown of 
France. The expedition, however, came to nothing. The French 
king, by bribes to many of the English councillors, induced them 
to advocate a truce. A treaty followed, by which a large pension 
was promised to Edward, and he returned to England, having 
gained a sum of money for his extravagant expenses. But his 
brothers and his warlike nobles were deeply dissatisfied at being de¬ 
nied the opportunity of winning French lordships with their swords. 

§ 20. The remainder of Edward’s reign was alike inglorious 
and unhappy. The potent Nevilles a were destroyed, a § 14 p 059 
but their property remained, and the dispute for it 
was fierce between the Dukes of Clarence and Gloucester. War¬ 
wick left two daughters, one of whom w T as married to Clarence, 
and the other to the Lancastrian prince, Edward. b „ g Q p 267 
Clarence desired to acquire the whole of the pro¬ 
perty, and therefore wished to keep his sister-in-law from marry¬ 
ing again. By pretended sympathy he got her into his power, 
and then forced her to disguise herself as a kitchen-maid; but 
Gloucester, who was resolved to share the rich inheritance, found 
out the cheat, and persuaded her to marry him. Henceforth the 
brothers were enemies for life. 

§ 21. But this was not the extent of Clarence’s misfortune; he had 
a deadly enemy in Earl Rivers, the queen’s brother, 0 c g 6 p 266 
and being a man equally weak and passionate, he put 
himself completely in his power. Two of his dependants, named 
Burdett and Stacy, were condemned and executed on a charge of 
inquiring, by magic arts, how long the king and his eldest son 
would live. Clarence, who had some time before retired from the 
court, now returned, and in commenting on their fate used words 
that were construed as treasonable. He was committed to the 
Tower, when Edward appeared personally as his accuser [a.d. 
1478], and he was condemned to death. A few days later he was 
found dead, but how that came about is unknown. It was asserted 
that he was drowned in a butt of Malmesbury wine. A strong 
light is thrown on his condemnation by the fact that many of his 
estates were granted to Anthony Woodville. d Edward, d g 6 p 2 gg. 
it is said, was privy to the murder, and afterward felt 
the pangs of remorse. Clarence left a son and a daughter, who 
both perished on the scaffold under the Tudors. 

12 * 


274 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book V. 

War with Scotland. France threatened. Old English Nobility Destroyed. 

8 22 The Kino- of France, after a few payments, refused to con- 
tinuethe pension that Edward had bargained for as the price of 
his withdrawal. a Although Edward was terribly en- 

- §19, P- 273. raged at thiS) he was n ot able at once to take any.re¬ 
venue as he was then engaged in a war with Scotland, having 
chosen to support the claim of the Duke of Albany, a pretender 
to the throne, who promised in return to cede a large part of the 
south of the kingdom, and to hold the rest as the vassal of Eng- 
land The English army, under the Duke of Gloucester, captured 
Edinburgh, and Berwick was taken after a long siege, when the 
war was allowed to drop, and Edward bestowed many privileges 
on his new subjects. That was in the year 1482. , Being thus free, 
he prepared for war with France; but in the midst of his pro¬ 
jects he died [April 9, 1483], after a brief illness, at the age of 
forty-one yearn. His habitual excesses and dissolute life for 
twenty years destroyed his vitality and made old age impossible. 
Edward left the crown to his son Edward, a youth of thirteen, 
who was proclaimed king, as Edward the Fifth, on the day of 
his father’s death. Edward the Fourth was remarkable alike for 
his military skill and courage, and his corrupt luxurious life. He 
was exceedingly handsome, and, when he had a purpose to gain, 
fascinating in manner. He was, however, both rapacious and ex- 
travagant° licentious and unscrupulous; and he was so innately 
cruel that he seemed to enjoy personally witnessing the execution 
of his prisoners; whilst in battle his cry was, “ Kill the nobles 
and spare the commons.” So thoroughly was this acted on that 
the ancient English nobility was almost annihilated in his reign, 
and the few new peers that he made did not long survive him. 


CHAPTER XY. 

reign of Edward the Fifth, [a.d. 1483.] 

§ 1. Yoitng Edward, son of Elizabeth Woodville, b and a beau¬ 
tiful boy of thirteen years, was residing at Ludlow 
*> § 5, p. 286 . Castle> in the marc i 18S of Wales, c at the time of his 
c § io, p- 109. father , s death. There he had a mimic court as 
d § 21, p. 273. prince of WaleSj of which his uncle Earl Rivers, d 



Chapter XV.] THE PLANTAGENETS. 275 

A straggle for Power. A Protector for England. Fate of a Royal Favorite. 

his half-brother Sir Richard Grey, Sir Thomas Vaughan, and 
others of the Woodville faction,* 1 had the direction. 

A struggle for power at once commenced,- in which ^ 6 ’ P ‘ 266 ' 
the unfortunate youth was sacrificed. The queen mother endea¬ 
vored to obtain his guardianship for herself, and when this failed 
she retired to the sanctuary at Westminster, taking her second son 
the Duke of York and her five daughters with her. The powerful 
Duke of Gloucester, who had been suspected of aspirations for 
the crown, arrived in haste from the north, and the nobles in 
general joined with him, their first object being at all events 
to get rid of the Woodvilles. The young king was sent for to 
London, but at Stony Stratford he was met by the Dukes of 
Gloucester and Buckingham, who were both his uncles, who took 
charge of him, and sent his Woodville attendants as prisoners to 
Pontefract Castle, in Yorkshire. 

§ 2. The news of this event greatly distressed the queen mother, 
for she saw in it nothing but evil for her family. Edward was 
brought to London, and Gloucester was forthwith appointed Pro¬ 
tector of both king and kingdom, whilst Buckingham was named 
chief justice of Wales, with a grant of such extraordinary powers 
as made him in reality a sovereign prince—all the royal castles 
being put into his hands, and authority to call out the whole 
population in arms being also conferred on him. 

§ 3. Hitherto all had gone smoothly, and a day was appointed 
for the coronation of the young king; but when it drew near a 
quarrel arose, of the real origin of which nothing is known. 
Lord Hastings, who was the brother-in-law of “ King making 
Warwick,” b had been a favorite of Edward the § 14 p 359 
Fourth, the late king, but was, perhaps on that ac¬ 
count, hated by the Woodvilles, and he had joined in taking the 
young king out of their hands. He was a man of very bad char¬ 
acter, and lived openly with Jane Shore, who had been the late 
king’s mistress. Suddenly he was accused of conspiring with her 
against the Protector. He was seized at the council-table in the 
Tower, and being hurried on to the green [June 13, 1483], was 
there beheaded on the instant, Gloucester, it is said, having vowed 
that he would not dine until he had seen his head. The Arch¬ 
bishop of York and the Bishop of Ely were seized at the same 
time; but whilst the latter was given into the keeping of the Duke 
of Buckingham, the former was almost immediately released. 


276 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book V. 

Murder of two Princes. A significant Bormon. Gloucester made King. 

§ 4. The Archbishop of Canterbury, Cardinal Bourchier, who was 
the great-uncle of the king and the Duke of York, was now sent 
to the queen mother in the sanctuary. He quieted her fears, and 
prevailed with her to part with her young son, the Duke of York, 
saying that his brother the king desired his company. The Tower 
was then the customary residence of the English monarchs in the 
interval between their accession and coronation; and the execution 
of Hastings seemed to the queen mother as the removal of an enemy. 
The youth was accordingly conducted to the royal fortress, but what 
afterwards befell either the young king or himself is not certainly 
known. The received story is, that both were murdered by the 
order of their uncle Richard, Duke of Gloucester; but their mother 
seems not to have believed it, as she, after his accession to the 
throne, left the sanctuary on his promise to provide for her, and 
even listened to a proposal of marriage between him and her eldest 
daughter. 

§ 5. The day named for the coronation of Edward the Fifth was 
June 22, 1485, and, as was then customary, it was a Sunday. But 
no coronation took place. On the contrary, on that very day Ralph 
Shaw, a preacher of great celebrity, who was the brother of the 
lord mayor, delivered a sermon at Paul’s Cross, in which he took 
for his text the declaration of the Book of Wisdom (chapter iv., 
verse 3), that “The multiplying brood of the ungodly shall not 
thrive, nor take deep rooting from bastard slips.” He asserted that 
the late king had already a wile (Lady Eleanor Butler) when he 
married “ Dame Elizabeth Grey,” “ whose children, 

" § B ’ p< 266, consequently, could have no claim to the crown. The 
Duke of Clarence had been attainted, and the inference of course 
was, that the Duke of Gloucester ought to be received as king. 
Two days afterward, Buckingham urged Gloucester s claims at the 
Guildhall, and in two days more [June 26] the matter was accom¬ 
plished, the parliament waiting on the duke in Bayard’s castle, 
and desiring him to take on him “ the office and title of king.” 
This, after much display of hypocrisy, he consented to do, and then 
rode in state to St. Paul’s, where he was received as Richard the 
Third with loud acclamation,—his well-known abilities in war 
and government seeming a sufficient justification for the step that 
relieved the people from the fear of having the rapacious Wood- 
villes at the head of affairs. It was also claimed that Richard was 
really the only true issue of the Duke of York, and that the late 


Chapter XVI.] THE PLANTAGENETS. 

Coronation of Richard the Third in England and Scotland. 


277 


king was a bastard, his mother 1 laving been unfaithful to her hus¬ 
band. This slander, for such it seems to have been, was propagated 
by the Dukes of Clarence and Burgundy. * 


CHAPTER XVI. 

reign of Richard the Third, [a.d. 1483 to 1485.] 

§ 1. In choosing the Duke of Gloucester for their ruler the par¬ 
liament only acted as their Saxon forefathers had done, who fre¬ 
quently preferred personal fitness to strict hereditary succession. 
If they had not done so, they would never have had n ^ ^ ^ 
an Alfred the Great ft to illustrate their era ; for that b § p 50 
famous prince was a supplanter of his nephews b ’ . 

equally with Richard the Third, although he had no ground to 
dispute their legitimacy. That the new king was not personally 
unpopular was shown not only at his coronation, on the 0th of -July, 
1483, which was attended by almost all the existing nobility, and 
where his mother appeared, sanctioning the setting aside of her 
grandchild (Edward the Fifth), and where the Countess of Rich¬ 
mond, the mother of his successor, bore his queen’s train, but even 
more so in the cordial reception that greeted him in his progress 
through the country, as at Oxford, Gloucester, and Coventry. 

§ 2 . Richard’s coronation at Westminster Abbey was a magnifi¬ 
cent ceremonial. His wife, Anne, daughter of Warwick the “ King¬ 
maker,” was crowned queen at the same time. In a few days he 
began a royal progress northward, and when he reached York lie 
gratified the people of the north, among whom he had long lived 
as warden of the Scottish marches, by being crowned a second 
time, in the minster, with great pomp, two months after he had 
received the kingly dignity at Westminster. They knew that 
shortly before, the Woodville prisoners had bfeen beheaded at Pon¬ 
tefract, but that made no difference in the warmth of their recep¬ 
tion of the monarch and his wife, for he was regarded as their 
countryman, and the queen’s kin came from far distant Kent. The 
king was then thirty-three years of age. 

§ 3. But kings who have succeeded to the throne by irregular 
means usually find it quite impossible to satisfy the demands of 



278 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book V. 

Buckingham’s Treason and Fate. The King supported by Parliament. 

tlieir supporters. Thus it had been with Henry the Fourth," and 
it was now the case with Richard. His grants were 
a § h P- 23?- very liberal to the Duke of Norfolk, the Earl of Nor¬ 
thumberland, Lord Stanley, but more particularly to the Duke of 
Buckingham, yet only the first named of these great men remained 
true to him. Buckingham was the first to set the example of drawing 
the sword against him. He laid claim to some lands that had been 
forfeited by his great-grandfather, and joined to the crown in the 
time of Richard the Second, and his request being denied, he re¬ 
tired in anger to his castle of Brecknock, where Mor- 
b § s, P . 275. ton , Bighop of Ely> b was then a prisoner. The duke 

was a proud, foolish man, and the crafty bishop easily persuaded 
him that he would advance his fortunes by joining the Lancas¬ 
trians in an attempt to drive Richard from the throne; his rum 
was the consequence. Risings took place in vaiious parts, many of 
the Woodville party 0 also appearing in arms, but 
c § i, p. 274. Buck i n gi iam ’ s incapacity prevented their success. 

§ 4. In virtue of his office of chief justice of Wales/ Buck¬ 
ingham compelled the country people to join him, 
d § 2 , P . 275. tQok nQ t i 10U g b t of providing money to pay them. 
Hence, when a flood in the Severn prevented their crossing and 
paying themselves by plunder in England, they deserted him. He 
sought refuge with one of his tenants near Shrewsbury; but a price 
being set on his head, he was betrayed to the sheriff, hurried off to 
Salisbury, where the king then was, and beheaded, without form of 
trial, by martial law, as had long been the practice with both par¬ 
ties in the civil war. The other insurgents speedily dispersed. 
Some sought shelter in sanctuaries, others fled to Brittany, where 
Henry (of the Tudor family c ), Earl of Richmond, was 
e§ 16 , p.271. gradually drawing together all the English malcon¬ 
tents of whatever party; and Richard, after making a progress 
through the west of England, where the Lancastrian cause was in 
favor, punishing some of the insurgents, but pardoning a far 
greater number, returned in triumph to London to keep his 
Christmas. 

§ 5. Early in the following year [a.d. 1484] the parliament which 
had met in November passed an act which annulled all the late 
king’s grants to ‘‘Elizabeth, late wife of Sir John 
f § 5, P . 266 . arey ,„ f thug sbow jng that, in their view, her marriage 
to Edward the Fourth was invalid, as Richard always asserted; 


Chapter XVI.] 


279 


THE PLANTAGENETS. 

Richard's Successor. Proceedings of Parliament. A Satirist punished. 

while at the same time he was designing to marry his son, the 
young Prince of Wales, to her daughter, the Princess Elizabeth, 
whom he had called a bastard, for fear she would marry Henry, 
Earl of Richmond, a whose house was the rival of that 

a § 4, p. 278. 

of York for the throne. Next, as a necessary conse¬ 
quence, the parliament took an oath to support the succession of 
Richard’s son, Edward, to the throne, who was then a boy eleven 
years of age. But this, and Richard’s designs concerning his son’s 
marriage, were rendered of no avail by the death of the young 
prince very shortly afterward, when one of Richard’s nephews, 
John, Earl of Lincoln, was declared the heir in his stead. 

§ 6. In this, the only parliament of Richard’s reign, several wise 
and equitable laws were passed, particularly with the view of 
remedying evils that had sprung up in the administration of 
justice. The latter years of Edward’s reign had been notorious in 
this respect, and men’s goods were often granted to their accusers 
or to court favorites before they had been convicted, whilst in 
other cases menial servants sat as jurors in cases where their 
masters were concerned, and usually brought in whatever ver¬ 
dict was required. Such abuses were now forbidden, as were 
“the exactions, called Benevolences,” b by which, as b§18 p m 
the statute says, “ many persons had been obliged to 
pay great sums of money, to then* almost utter destruction.’ 

§ 7. Richard was now apparently firmly seated on the throne, 
and his enemies, ceasing for the time from armed opposition, oc¬ 
cupied themselves with making verses in his dispraise. One of 
these is curious, as giving the names of the men who were supposed 
to be his chief counsellors. It runs thus:— 

“ The Cat, the Rat, and Lovel that dog, 

Rule all England under the Hog.” 

The Hog is Richard himself, alluding to the white boar which he 
employed as one of the supporters of the royal arms. The Cat is 
Catesby, a lawyer and chancellor of the exchequer, who was very 
naturally odious, as the fines and forfeitures were levied by him. 
The Rat is either Richard or Robert Ratcliffe, both thoroughgoing 
Yorkists; and Lovel is named “ that dog,” as he was the son of a 
Lancastrian, and so was regarded as a deserter of the e ^ ^ p 2g2 
Red Rose. 0 That age could not afford to despise such 
attacks, and William Collingboumc, who had been sheriff of 
Wiltshire, was hanged as the author of the rhyme. 


280 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book Y. 

The King’s Marriage Projects. The Queen Poisoned. Intrigues for the Throne. 

§ 8. The parliament having confiscated the property of Queen 
Elizabeth, Richard prevailed on her to leave the sanctuary, with 
her daughters, under a solemn oath that he would provide, for 
them. The death of the king’s son having frustrated his marriage 
scheme, he resolved to marry the Princess Elizabeth himself, and 
the girl was kept continually about the person of Queen Anne. 
That lady suddenly fell sick early in 1485, when it was announced 
that she could not live long. The mother of the princess, im¬ 
patient to have her daughter marry the reputed murderer of her 
two sons, expressed her surprise at the length of time Queen Anne 
took in dying, and late in February the impatient princess ex¬ 
pressed her fears that she would never die. But Anne departed in 
March, and Richard was about to proceed to marry his niece, when 
his chief advisers, Ratcliffe and Catesby, a represented 
a § 7, p- 2 <9. guc ^ a marriage would be considered incestuous 

by the clergy and people, and that the suspicions that he had 
caused Queen Anne to be poisoned would be confirmed. Richard 
expected to get a dispensation for the marriage from the Pope; 
but he felt that such permission would not satisfy his subjects; and 
then he publicly proclaimed that he had never thought of such 
a marriage, and ordered the arrest of all persons who had propa¬ 
gated such a malicious report. 

§ 9. Richard now tried to induce the Duke of Brittany to sur¬ 
render to him the Tudor, Henry Earl of Richmond,” 
b § 4, p. 278. did not succee( ^ an d from that time his downfall 

may be dated. Richmond had really not a shadow of right to the 
crown—he was, in fact, a mere adventurer—but he was able and 
active, and the discontented of all parties flocked to him. His 
mother was then the wife of Lord Stanley, her third husband, who 
was much trusted by Richard, and to whom her forfeited estates 
had been generously granted by the king. But this leniency did 
not prevent her carrying on a secret correspondence with the ex¬ 
queen, Elizabeth, in which the two intriguing women discussed 
and matured a plan for placing the kingdom in the hands of the 
Earl of Richmond. It was agreed that if Richmond should be 
successful, he should marry the Princess Elizabeth, who at that 
very time, as we have seen, had accepted the suit of Richard, 
and was anxious for the death of Anne that she might mount 
the throne. The ambitious girl, already an adept at intrigue, 
endeavored to hold in her hand two chances for the prize of 


Chapter XVI.] THE PLANTAGENETS. 281 

Earl of Richmond in England. He fights for the Crown. Death of the King. 

the queenship of England. She won, as we shall observe pres¬ 
ently. 

§ 10. Shortly before this the Earl of Oxford escaped from the 
castle of Hammes, where he had heen confined for twelve years, 
and induced some of the garrison to join the Earl of Richmond 
with him. This was an important accession of strength to the Lan¬ 
castrian party, a as Oxford was an able soldier, and a g 01 p 262 
matters began to grow serious. Richard fitted out 
a fleet under Sir George Neville (a nephew of the “ King¬ 
maker”) b to prevent the landing of Richmond. To b §i 4 p 259 
do this, he was forced to resort to the plan of “ benevo¬ 
lences,” c which he had so censured in his brother, and, c § 6 ’ p - 2<9 - 
worse still, the Lancastrians evaded Neville, and landed at Milford 
Haven, on the 7th of August, 1485, after seven days’ passage from 
France. 

§ 11. As the place where the landing would be attempted was 
altogether uncertain, Richard had repaired to Nottingham, as a 
central point, and summoned ]iis supporters to meet him; but 
many on whom he had reckoned were now in league with the enemy. 
Richmond moved slowly through Wales into Staffordshire, some 
openly joining him, but others, like Lord Stanley d d g 9 p 280 
and the Earl of Northumberland, remained with Rich¬ 
ard for the express purpose of deserting him in battle. The op¬ 
portunity soon occurred. The armies met at Bosworth, in Leicester¬ 
shire, on the 22d of August, and there Richard, abandoned when 
he had almost gained the victory, was defeated and killed, despe¬ 
rately fighting. Then the treacherous Lord Stanley picked up the 
crown, battered and blood-stained, and placed it on the head of 
Richmond. Richard’s body was carried into Leicester and buried 
with scant ceremony in the Greyfriars monastery. It did not rest 
there very long, for at the dissolution of religious houses, in the 
reign of Henry the Eighth, it was cast out, and his stone coffin long 
after served as a horse-trough at an inn in the town. 

§ 12. Such was the end of the last king of the house of York, who 
died at the age of about thirty-three years, after a reign of only 
two years and two months; but his character has suffered more 
than his remains or his monument, by being drawn only by wri¬ 
ters who lived under the Tudors. He is accused by them of more 
crimes than could well be crowded into his short life, but not one 
of them has been fully proved, and probably not one would have 


282 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book V. 

Character and Administration of King Kichard. A Vindication. 

been heard of had he, instead of Richmond, been the victor at 
Bosworth. On the other hand, what wc know from the mdrspntac 
ble evidence of the public records is much in his favor T , 
prove that he was far more lenient in his treatment of his oppo 
nents than was then usual; for though he, as a matter of course, 
seized their estates when they were attainted, he in many instances 
regranted them to members of their families. He also gave pen¬ 
sions to the wives or the widows of several of them, as to the Coun¬ 
tesses of Warwick and Oxford, and the Duchess of Bucking am, 
and the Earl of Northumberland, Lord Stanley, and others, who le- 
came the adherents of Richmond, had received liberal grants from 
him for their services against the Lancastrians. 

s 13 Short- and troubled as was the reign of Richard the Third, 
he seems to have found a pleasure in rewarding both towns and 
individuals who had suffered in the cause of his house. He 
was a benefactor to both universities; encouraged the newly 
invented art of printing, and appointed consuls to protect the in¬ 
terests of the English merchants abroad. He also establishe 
regular couriers for the speedy transmission of news, and may thus 
be regarded as having taken the first step in the establishment of 
the post-office. It is evident from all this, that whatever might 
have been his faults, the cold-blooded policy and the avarice of 
Henry the Seventh, his successor, could not be justly ascribed o 
Richard. He, on the contrary, was clearly a man of generous 
spirit and enlightened views, and therefore quite undeserving o 
beino- handed down to posterity as a monster of iniquity, whose 
deformed person was the fit index of a depraved mind. It is by 
no means certain that he was deformed, and his activity and 
dauntless courage in the field are hardly reconcilable with the 
statement, to say nothing of the fact that all the rest of his family 
were remarkable for their personal beauty. His right shoulder 
was a trifle higher than his left; but there is no proof that he was 
a hunchback, as the Tudor writers represented him. He appears 
not to have been the ugly, bold, bad man of Shakespeare’s dramas, 
—so ugly that he said of himself 

u j that am curtailed of this fair proportion, 

Cheated of feature by dissembling nature, 

Deform’d, unfinish’d, sent before my time 
Into this breathing world, scarce half made up, 

And that so lamely and unfashionable 
That dogs bark at me as I halt by them.” 


283 


Chapter XVII.] THE PLANTAGENETS. 

The Plantagenet Monarchs. Their Policy and its Results. 


CHAPTER XVII. 

the Plantagenets. Scotland, [a.d. 1154 to 1485.] 

§ 1. Most of the Plantagenet monlTchs, of whom Richard the 

Third was the last, were able men, with quite as little claim to 

be considered “humble” as their founder.® On the 

,, a § 13, p. m 

contrary, they were warlike, aggressive princes, and 

their rule of more than three centuries forms a very important part 

of the history of Europe. They conquered both Ire- 

•> i A. ^ § 21 p 139 

land b and Wales, 0 though they hardly increased their 

c § 5, p. 183. 

own power thereby, for the spoil in each case, in- 

stead of coming into the king’s hands, fell almost entirely to a few 

great nobles or bold adventurers, who soon became independent 

princes in all but in name. The Plantagenets also waged almost 

ceaseless wars with France and Scotland, which failed in their 

object of conquest, but had an effect upon England that their 

authors had never contemplated. 

§ 2. The feudal system/ which supplied armies only for a 

limited period of service, was quite unsuited to kings 

1 1 ° d § 6, p. 96. 

who wished to achieve distant conquests and keep 

them for themselves. Therefore the first of the Plantagenets re¬ 
sorted to the plan of accepting money instead of knights’ service, 
and employed soldiers who were ready to serve at all times and in 
all places, provided only their pay in ready money was forth¬ 
coming. The necessity of providing this treasure had the result, 
eventually, of giving a new form to the government of the State, 
and from it directly sprang the middle class, between the crown 
and nobles and the poor, which long before the close of the Planta¬ 
genet rule was at least the equal of the others combined, and more 
powerful than either separately. 

§ 3. The rise of this class, though slow, was sure; as, unlike the 
kings and the nobles, it never parted with any advantage that it 
had once gained. By the offer of money to their ^ ^ ^ Qg 

immediate superiors, the bondmen became freemen/ 
and then the freemen became townsmen, or dwellers and artisans 
in villages, with the right to govern themselves, and f ^ ^ ^ 

to give shelter within then- walls to the villein f who 
fled from the too great tyranny of the barons. Next came the giv- 


284 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book V. 

Growth of Popular Power. Contemporary Events in Scotland. 

ing the townsmen a distinct place in the State by summoning their 
representatives to the parliament in the time of Henry 
a § 21, P . 179. the Third ft and from tha t time they have remained an 

order in the State without whose concurrence no wise king has at¬ 
tempted to govern. Their importance increased with the increas¬ 
ing sphere of the wars of thc^Edwards, and when the Plantagenets 
were divided into the hostile Houses of Lancaster and 
b § 21, p. m Y or k ? b their power was so firmly fixed that they had 
established the unquestionable right of giving or withholding the 
“ aids ” and “ supplies ” for the service of the State, and also of 
calling to a strict account the highest officers, and even of concur¬ 
ring in settling the succession to the throne. 

§°4. Such power had resulted from the encouragement given to 

traders and manufacturers, which had been a part of the policy 
of Edward the Third, in order to depress the French and the 
Flemings. 0 England had grown wealthy in spite of 
C § 7, p. 208. war , and her merc]iail ts had become adventurous, so as 

to rival the Germans on the one hand and the Italians on the other. 
And it was in the time of the Plantagenets that the foundations 
were laid of the England of the present day, which rejoices in its 
“ ships, colonies, and commerce,” but seldom carries their origin 
sufficiently far back. The Tudors, to whom these things, as also 
the establishment of the Royal Navy, are usually ascribed, only 
carried out what had been begun centuries before their time. 

§ 5. The intimate historical connection of Scotland with Eng¬ 
land during the Plantagenet dynasty, and the permanent union of 
the two kingdoms at the close of the Tudor dynasty, make it 
proper to give here a brief account of events in Scotland during 
the later years of the period we have been considering. 

§ 6. The grandson of The Bruce, Robert the Third, d possessed 
the throne of Scotland at the beginning of the fif- 
0§15, p. 243. teenth century . Lacking energy, he allowed others 

to govern the kingdom and himself. His brother, Duke of Albany, 
acted as regent until 1398, when the nobility and national feeling 
were rallied around Robert’s son, the Duke of Rothesay, and heir 
apparent to the throne, who then assumed the office of regent, 
with a promise of energy and wisdom. The government was in 
• his hands when Henry the Fourth of England, 6 at the 
c § l, P . 237. cloge of the year 1400? made the last of the English 

raids into Scotland, led by an English monarch in person. 


285 


Chapter XVII.] THE PLANTAGENETS. 

Condition of Public Affairs in Scotland. 

§ 7. Rothesay proved to be incompetent, and his enemies per¬ 
suaded his father to order his arrest and imprisonment, when he 
was starved to death in a dungeon of the royal palace of Falk¬ 
land. Then the ambitious Duke of Albany resumed the regency, 
made war on England, and was carrying matters with a high 
hand when the result of the battle of Shrewsbury 51 a § 9> p 240 
caused him to withdraw and disband his troops. A 
truce followed, and on the 80th of March, 1405, King Robert s 
second son, James, then heir apparent, was captured by the Eng¬ 
lish when voyaging homeward from France. Robert died on the 
4th of April, 1406, having been king, in name only, nearly sixteen 
years. 

§ 8. James was kept a prisoner in England. The Scottish par¬ 
liament proclaimed him king, but Albany continued to exercise 
right royal power as regent. In 1411 he suppressed a formidable 
rebellion of The Lord of the Isles, b and compelled b § g , p> 265 
that potentate to acknowledge himself to be a vassal 
of the crown of Scotland. Meanwhile James was held a prisoner, 
and Albany willingly prolonged his captivity for a sinister pur¬ 
pose. He made a truce with England for six years, but, under 
French influence, he violated it [September, 1417], when all south¬ 
ern Scotland was desolated by the English. Soon after that 
Albany sent a large body of Scotch troops into France, to assist 
the French in fighting the English. c A little later, c § ^ p m 
the regent died [Sept. 3, 1419], at the age of eighty 
years, after the exercise of feudal tyranny for the space of thirty- 
four years. 

§ 9. Albany’s son, Murdoch, succeeded his father as regent; but 
he was so inefficient that it was not long before anarchy prevailed 
in Scotland. That state of things continued until late in the year 
1423, when the captive King of Scotland, on the death of Hemy 
the Fifth of England, whom he had accompanied in that mon¬ 
arch’s expedition to France, d was allowed to return d ^ ^ p 2 52 . 
to his native country.* On the 24th of May following 
he formed a family alliance with England, by marriage with 
Lady Joanna Beaufort, daughter of the Duchess of Claience by 
her first husband, the Duke of Somerset,® and the e ^ ^ p 271> 
descendant of Edward the Third by both parents. 

He was crowned James the First of Scotland, in the Abbey Churc 
of Scone, on the 21st of May, 1424. 


286 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book Y. 

Career of James of Scotland. Dealings with his Enemies. His Assassination. 

§ 10. James was the most accomplished man of his time. He 
sincerely desired the welfare of his country; and after making a 
truce for seven years with England, he set about the difficult task 
of reform, and the suppression of internal disorders. Several 
members of the late regent’s family, who were disposed to be dis¬ 
loyal and turbulent, were arrested. Among them was the father- 
in-law of Murdoch, a the Earl of Lennox, then eighty 
« § 9, p. 285. y earg a g e> They were all executed in front of 
Stirling Castle, in the month of May, 1428. The great estates 
of the Albany family were forfeited to the crown, and its power 
was utterly destroyed. After that tragedy, for several years James 
continued, with his annual parliament, to promote the political, 
social, and industrial interests of his kingdom. He extended its 
trade by wise laws, and by making treaties of alliance and com¬ 
merce with France, Flanders, and other foreign countries. 

§ 11. In the spring of 1427, James had taken measures to bring 
the Highland clans, who defied his authority, into subjection. He 
imprisoned and executed the heads of several of them. Among those 
imprisoned was Alexander, the Lord of the Isles, b who 
b ^ 3 ’ p ' 2(, °' had again risen in open revolt. Another Highland 
rebellion broke out in 1431, led by Donald Balloch, a near relation 
of the Lord of the Isles. That, too, was promptly suppressed. 
The “ pacification of the Highlands” was accomplished after the 
execution of about three hundred persons; but the blood then 
shed nourished dangerous seeds of hatred. 

§ 12. James formed an alliance with France, and in 1435 sent 
his infant daughter, Margaret, to be betrothed to the dauphin, or 
heir apparent to the throne of that kingdom. By these measures 
he became involved in a serious dispute with the English govern¬ 
ment, which led him to break the truce in 1436, and invade Eng¬ 
land. His queen persuaded him to desist, when he withdrew, 
disbanded his army, and kept Christmas festivities in the monas¬ 
tery of the Blackfriars, at Perth, unconscious that a conspiracy 
against his life was then ripe. The leaders in it were Sir Robert 
Graham, Walter Stuart Earl of Athole, and his grandson, Robert 
Stewart, adherents of the Duke of Albany, who had some private 
injuries to avenge. On the night of the 20th of February (to 
which time the festivities had been prolonged), Graham and armed 
accomplices made their way to the royal bedchamber, where they 
found the king in his night-robes, conversing with the queen and 


Chapter XVII.] THE PLANTAGENETS. 287 

Anarchy in Scotland. The Douglas Family. Intrigues for the Throne. 

her lady attendants. James attempted to escape first by the win¬ 
dows, and then into a vault beneath the floor. There he was 
murdered, Graham giving him his death-blow. James was then 
in the forty-fourth year of his age. 

§ 13. James’s only son, a child six years of age, was immediately 
crowned James the Second. A dark career for Scotland then 
opened, for rapine and violence, released from truly royal rule, 
everywhere prevailed. As years rolled on, the Douglas family 
gained such power that it menaced the monarchy. In William, 
the eighth Earl of Douglas, was the representative of the most 
formidable faction against the crown at the time when the young 
king assumed the management of the affairs of the realm. 
Douglas, with a large body of retainers, defied the king, and 
committed acts of the greatest atrocity. James determined to 
destroy the ruffian. Under pretence of friendship he invited him 
to Stirling Castle in February, 1452, when he quarrelled with and 
murdered the great Scottish chief. 

§ 14. An open rebellion of the adherents of Douglas ensued, but 
was speedily crushed; but the brother of the murdered chief never 
ceased from his work of revenge. He was driven from Scotland, 
and by intrigues with the Yorkists in England a he 

J b ' & a § 21, p. 262. 

fomented a quarrel which led James to invade that 
country. He laid siege to Roxburgh Castle; and at the end of 
July, 1460, the king was killed by the bursting of a cannon, by 
the side of which he stood. 

§ 15. The crown of Scotland now passed to the head of James’s 
eldest son by Mary of Guelders, whom lie had married in 1449. 
James the Third was only eight years of age when he was crowned. 
Again intrigue and turbulence prevailed, in which the Boyds and 
Hamiltons appear conspicuous. The new king was a weak 
prince; and in due time his younger brothers, who respectively 
bore the titles of Duke of Albany and Earl of Mar, contemplated 
the seizure of the crown. Mar was arrested in 1480, and died soon 
afterward. Albany fled to France, and on returning, in 1482, 
he entered into a treaty with Edward the Fourth, in which he 
assumed the title of Alexander, King of Scotland, consenting 
to receive the crown as a gift from Edward as his lord superior. 

$16. It was on account of this agreement that the „ 

. b § 22, p. 274. 

Duke of Gloucester (afterward Richard the Third) 

marched into Scotland in the summer of 1482, b when James 


288 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 


[Book V. 

Church and State in England. Heresy. The LoUards. 

also raised an army. But James had greater trouble at home; and 
for a while the Duke of Albany was the actual administrator of 
the government. By a turn in affairs he was precipitated from 
power, and compelled to flee to England, while James once more 
assumed supreme rule. Albany was kindly received by Duke 
Richard at Berwick, which he had captured. 11 The 
»§ 22, p. 274. was goon dosed, at a treaty at Nottingham in 
1484, and with it ended the principal events in the history of the 
Plantagenet dynasty, begun in 1154. 


CHAPTER XVIII. 


SOCIETY DURING THE RULE OF THE LATER PLANTAGENETS. 


§ 1 . We have observed how strong was the papal power in 
England at the close of the fourteenth century, and how restive 
the people were becoming under its exactions. b From 
b § l, p. 228. that t - me it began tQ decline, not only in England, 
but elsewhere. The general councils began to resist its preten¬ 
sions- and the great schism which broke out on the death of 
Gregory the Eleventh, in 1878, and divided the Western Empire 
for half a century, diminished its strength, and left the elements 
of decay in its foundation. In England the crown, as state policy, 
continued to make common cause with the clergy; and the only 
instance recorded in English history in which, as a body, they ever 
appeared disloyal, was in that of the deposition of Richard the 
Second. 0 Even then they were only partisans of one 
c §24, p. 22 <. ^ £ w0 competitors for the crown. 

§ 2. Until the period we are now considering, heresy had not 
much troubled the church in England, and it had never been capi¬ 


tally punished. The first prelate who became an .actual persecu¬ 
tor was Arundel, Archbishop of Canterbury, who was a promi¬ 
nent actor in the deposition of Richard the Second d 
in 1399. As we have seen, e he took violent measures 
against the reformers known as Lollards, the fol¬ 
lowers of Walter Lolhard, who was burnt as a heretic at Co¬ 
logne, in 1322. In the new “heretics” the church saw a hostile 
force, formidable in numbers and zeal; and from Arundel’s time 


a § 21. p. 225. 
* § 3, p. 245. 



Chapter XVIII.] THE PLANTAGENETS. 289 

Statute against Heretics. Fiery Persecutions. Evil Influence of the Clergy. 

they were dreadfully persecuted. One of their chief offences was 
the “ damnable teaching ” that in the making of pilgrimages to 
Canterbury, Beverly, and other places, the people were duped and 
made to spend time and money foolishly. The archbishop’s craft 
was put in danger, and the revenues of the church might be de¬ 
creased by such teaching. 

§ 3. At the beginning of the second year of the reign of Henry the 
Fourth [a.d. 1401], the famous statute against heretics, which came 
to the aid of the church in suppressing innovations and punishing 
innovators, was proclaimed. It forbade all preaching, teaching, 
or circulating of books, in public or private, without the consent 
of a bishop, under penalty of fine and imprisonment; and upon 
those who were convicted of teaching anything “ contrary to the 
Catholic faith or declaration of the holy church,” and who re¬ 
fused to abjure, it imposed the dreadful punishment of a public 
burning at the stake. The primate (Arundel) was made a sort of 
inquisitor-general, and he had the pleasure of presiding at the 
trial of such a contumacious heretic a few weeks after the cruel 
statute was published. The victim was William Sawtree, a clergy¬ 
man, who was burnt at Smithfield early in March, 1401. He was 
the first person around whom the fires of religious persecution 
were lighted in England. They burnt on fiercely, at times, after 
that, the chief offence of the victims being a denial of the real 
presence of Christ’s flesh and blood in the consecrated bread and 
wine taken at the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper. 

§ 4. At this period the great body of the clergy stood obsti¬ 
nately in the way of all reforms in church and State, and were 
hinderers of the progress of Christianity and civilization. To keep 
the people in ignorance and awe, and to promote the power of the 
priesthood, they fostered the worst superstitions of the Dark Ages, 
and continually urged the importance of penances, confessions, in¬ 
dulgences, processions, pilgrimages, veneration for wells and adora¬ 
tion of images and the relics of saints. At this time [a.d. 1410] the 
wine in the Lord’s Supper was withheld from the laity and used 
only by the clergy ; and every species of dissent from the teach¬ 
ings of the ecclesiastics was denounced and punished as heresy. 
According to a document published by the University of Oxford, in 
1415, these “ lords spiritual,” who held such an iron grasp upon the 
people, crushing in them every noble aspiration for self-assertion, 
were, as a body, ignorant, rapacious, and profligate, enemies lo 
13 


290 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book Y. 

Laws and Government. Commerce and Manufactures. 

true religion and social order, wlio were seldom punished for the 
grossest offences against morality. But in spite of the chuich a 
purer religion and morality spread among the people, especially of 
the middle class represented by the House of Com- 
» § 6, p. 230. mong a ag a consequence of greater independence of 
thought and action. The seeds of that Reformation whose fruit 
we are enjoying then germinated. 

§ 5. We have little to note concerning jurisprudence and law 
during this period. It was a season of civil war and great com¬ 
motions, a condition unfavorable to social advancement. It may 
be sufficient to say that the power of the Commons and their con¬ 
stituency was gradually increased. The monarchy became less 
and less an autocracy, and lost much of its despotic power. Con¬ 
cession after concession was made to the people, and the crown 
became, in a large degree, a dependant of the parliament. Many 
feudal laws, through necessity, fell into desuetude. Courts of law 
became more distinctively courts of justice, and the rights of the 
people were more clearly recognized and positively protected. 

Changes had been made in the matter of crown lands, b 
b § 6, p. 164. and the revenues 0 f the monarch were much less and 

more honestly obtained. In this statement we must except the profli¬ 
gate and extravagant Edward the Fourth, and his predecessor Henry. 

§ 6. Notwithstanding the unfavorable condition of society, dur¬ 
ing this period of turbulence, for the advancement of national 
industry, the commerce and manufactures of England greatly 
increased." Efforts were made for the increase of the foreign 
trade. They were successful. Treaties for commercial inter¬ 
course with the sixty or seventy cities and towns in Germany be¬ 
longing to the Hanseatic League were made; and British ships 
were seen in every mart of traffic. The wool and the woollen 
fabrics of England were superior to those of any other country; and 
so extended was the exportation of these that, in the fifteenth 
century, Yenice, Florence, and Genoa found, in their commercial 
intercourse with England, the balance of trade against them. Of 
course this did not imply the real prosperity of England, for her 
wool and cloth and other useful things were largely exchanged 
for luxuries. London was, at that time, the English emporium of 
trade and manufactures. A Greek writer said, in the year 1400, 
that it was “preferred to any city in the West for population, 
opulence, and luxury. 1 ’ 


201 


Chapter XYIII.J THE PLANTAGENETS. 

The Mechanic Arts. Post-Offices. Agriculture. Furniture. 

§ 7. In mechanic arts new industries were developed. The in¬ 
vention of gunpowder and firearms at this period had created 
new wants and diminished old ones. The business of the armorer 
was almost wholly changed. And so with other trades. But all 
were hampered by unwise restrictions, yet all flourished; for not¬ 
withstanding the civil wars of the Lancaster period ft a § 21 p 262 
England continually grew richer and richer, and the 
wants of the inhabitants were greater and were gratified. Not¬ 
withstanding the foolish restrictions put upon commerce, mer¬ 
chants, both native and foreign, amassed enormous wealth, and 
dining the seasons of quiet the lands produced much more than the 
wants of the people required. It was during this period that public 
posts for the conveyance of intelligence—in fact a post-office system 
-—was established in England, and greatly promoted facilities for 
trade and commerce. It was wholly in the hands of the govern¬ 
ment. The national coins remained the same as at the former 
peiiod b in name, but their value was somewhat b g 14 p 232 
changed—generally depreciated. 

§ 8. During this period the people, on the whole, were better 
fed, clothed, and housed than at any previous time. The villein 
class c were gradually merged into free laborers, and c g 5 p 164 
many of them betook themselves to handicrafts. In¬ 
creased production followed this emancipation, and allowed the 
exportation of agricultural products. The exportation of corn 
was permitted by statute in 1425, and from that time England 
was a grain-exporting country. Yet the product per acre, as 
compared with the present yield, was very small—less than six 
bushels of wheat, twelve of barley, twelve of peas, and five of 
oats. 

§ 9. Intercourse with foreign nations, and an increase of wealth, 
caused modifications in the arrangement of households and the 
general mode of living in England. The walls of houses of the 
better sort were hung with tapestry instead of being painted as 
in the preceding age. The furniture was more elegant and costly 
in material and fashion; and rich tapestry was used in the curtains 
of beds and windows. Tables, buffets, chairs, desks, cradles, and 
stools were often elegantly carved, and inlaid with various woods 
and metals, and were often covered with rich stuffs beautifully 
embroidered. Feather beds were introduced at this period; and 
leopard skins were sometimes used as bed-coverings. Early in 


292 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 


[Book V. 


Dress and Fashions. Effects of Gunpowder. Amusements. 


the fifteenth century, clocks with weights and strings, hanging 
against the wall, were first seen in illustrated manuscripts. 

§ 10. In dress, the extravagant fashions introduced in the reign 
of Richard the Second a appear to have undergone 

a § 29. p. 236. Grange during the remainder of the Plan- 

tagenet dynasty. The fashions were ridiculed by the satirists, and 
against some, legislative enactments were hurled, but with little 
effect. The hah’ of the men was cut short, and the head-dresses 
of the women became more elaborate and fantastic during a por¬ 
tion of the period. Among other absurdities was the horrid head¬ 
dress in the reign of Henry the Fifth, an illustration of which is 
given in the monumental effigy of Beatrice, Countess of Arundel, 
in Arundel church. 

§ 11. It was in this period that chivalry attained its highest 
eminence, and defensive armor was made in the greatest perfec¬ 
tion before the invention of gunpowder and fire-arms. Men were 
covered with garments made sometimes of a net work of small 
chains, but more generally of plates of steel and iron, so adjusted 
by hinges as to fit and work with the body. So they were cov¬ 
ered from head to foot, with openings only for the ears, eyes, and 
nostrils. Metal shields, made very strong, were also used. Then 
the helmets, and indeed the whole armor, were made proof against 
sword, battle-axe, and spear. The horse of the warrior was also 
clad in mail. But so heavy was the armor of a knight, that if 
thrown to the ground he could not rise without assistance. Gun¬ 
powder and. cannon-balls made such armor useless, and it soon 


went out of use. 

§ 12. Gunpowder exploded chivalry with all its mummeries 
and shams, and the tournament, the great military pastime of the 
middle ages, disappeared. Other amusements for the court, 
knights, and people were much the same as during the preceding 
period. b Public exhibitions more nearly resembling 
b ^ 31 ' p ‘ ~’ j8 ‘ the modern theatre took the place, to a great extent, 
§32, p. 7. ^ £| ie g rosser mummeries. 0 Pantomimes and dia¬ 
logues, called “ Mysteries,” were in great repute, in vdiich sacred 
subjects and characters were mingled wdth much profanity. Bowl¬ 
ing, ball-playing, and archery continued to be the favorite amuse¬ 
ments of the common people; and chess and card-playing whiled 
away the hours in halls and castles. The latter had been intro- 
duc:d from the East by the crusaders or pilgrims. Blindman’s 


293 


Chapter XVIII.] THE PLANTAGENETS. 

Literature, Science, and Art. First Printing in England. 

buff, or “ Hoodman blind,” as it was called, jumping through 
hoops, shuttlecock, tumbling, leaping, and running, were also 
common sports; and licensed or professional fools, answering to 
the “ clown ” of the circus in our day, were to be seen every¬ 
where. The “ fool,” or “ jester”—generally a witty fellow—was 
an established officer in the royal households of England and 
among the nobility, from the time of the Conquest to that of 
Charles the Second, a period of six hundred years. His business 
was to make fun at table and elsewhere. 

§ 13. Of the literature, science, and fine arts of England at this 

period, little may be said. The enthusiasm for study which sent 

thirty thousand students to Oxford at one time a was 

J , . _ * § 19, p. 233. 

only a spasm. So early as 1357, the thirty thousand 

had dwindled to less than six thousand. The popular veneration 
for learning had declined; and men of learning and science were 
seen begging bread. The actual contributions to the national 
literature in the fifteenth century were less than those of any pre¬ 
ceding age since the Conquest. There were historians, romancers, 
and poets of excellence, but not of great pre-eminence, since 
Chaucer died; and philosophers were few. Yet the love of learn¬ 
ing was alive. It was only slumberous. In the course of that 
century several new colleges were added to Oxford and Cam¬ 
bridge. The Scottish universities of St. Andrew and Glasgow 
were established; and schools for the'common people were more 
numerous than before. Indeed, there was no decline of zeal for 
study among the middle class, while it grew cold with the nobility, 
among whom learned men became of little repute. 

§ 14. England was then watching the dawn of that glorious day 
when the art of printing burst upon the world like another sun, 
giving new light and heat to * the souls of men. That art was 
practised in Germany thirty years before it was introduced into 
England or France. It was not until 1474, when William Caxton, 
a native of Kent, who had been for some time in the household of 
Margaret, Duchess of Burgundy, b on returning to b § ^ p m 
England brought the art with him, and set up a print¬ 
ing-office near Westminster Abbey. Then he printed a book which 
Earl Rivers c had translated from the French, and who, c § 21 p m 
in 1477, introduced Caxton to Edward the Fourth. 

§ 15. The fine arts, particularly architecture, flourished during 
this period. A style of Gothic peculiarly English, known as the 


294 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 


[Book V. 


Improvements in Architecture. 


Painting, Sculpture, and Music. 


* § 2, p. 265. 


'perpendicular, had been introduced as a successor to the more deco¬ 
rative style, whose excesses on the Continent had offended good 
taste. Panelling was its chief method of ornamentation. Even 
doors and windows formed panels in the general design. Light¬ 
ness of construction was another new feature in all kinds of archi¬ 
tecture ; and churches, castles, and manor-houses assumed a more 
airy appearance. The latter displayed handsome Gothic gables: 
also Gothic windows, flat and projecting. Chimney-pieces were 
beautifully ornamented; and gateways often presented pleasing 
specimens of art. England now began to exhibit to the traveller, 
as a national characteristic, tasteful buildings everywhere, and art 
of every kind. 

§ 16. In painting, the fifteenth century was, perhaps, the most 
barren period of English history. The great War¬ 
wick a employed his tailor to do the painter’s work to 
be displayed in the pageantry of his embassy to France. The art 
was employe 1 chiefly in heraldic and decorative painting; and 
the best artist' were the illuminators of manuscripts. Sculpture was 
equally neglected, though a few monumental works really deserved 
much praise. 

§ 17. Music in this period began to take, in rude form, some¬ 
thing of the character of modern melody and harmony. Ecclesias¬ 
tical music was studied at the universities; and at the 
coronation of Henry the Fifth, b a prodigious number 
of harps were used; also drums, then lately introduced from the 
East. The splendid victory of Agincourt c gave birth 
to the first English musical composition entitled to 
It was written on vellum, and is preserved in Cam¬ 
bridge University. In the year 1469 the minstrel profession was 
chartered. Minstrels were paid much higher for their services 
than priests, and some became wealthy. A musical school was 
established at Oxford, which in time produced eminent composers. 


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BOOK VI. 


THE TUDORS. 
[from a.d. 1485 TO 1603.] 


CHAPTER L 

reign of Henry the Seventh, [a.d. 1485 to 1509.] 

§ 1. The fortunate adventurer who had won a crown by a single 
battle a was the grandson of Catherine of France, the a ^ 1;I p 281 
widow of Henry the Fifth, b through her second mar- b j ^ 245 ' 
riage with one of her attendants, a handsome young 
Welshman, named Owen Tudor. Their two sons, Edmund and 
Jasper, c were created Earls of Richmond and of Pern- c § 16 p m ' 
broke by their half-brother, Henry the Sixth. Ed¬ 
mund married Margaret Beaufort, a great-granddaughter of John 
of Gaunt,' 1 but died in the following year, leaving his d § 2) p 217 
young widow and their infant son to the care of his 
brother Jasper. When the child was but five years old his grand¬ 
father was taken at Mortimer’s Cross and beheaded,® e § ^ p 263 
and his uncle became a fugitive. Pembroke’s title 
and his strong castle of Pembroke were both given to William 
Herbert, a new-made noble, who was happily a generous man, 
and, though obliged to act as their keeper, he treated both mother 
and son with kindness. The temporary restoration of f ^ p 264 
Henry the Sixth f set the young earl at liberty for the 
first time in his life; but on the return of Edward the Fourth his 
uncle Jasper took him abroad, his mother being then ^ 2G2 
married to Sir Henry Stafford, a Yorkist ." 

§ 2. The two fugitives passed many anxious years, sometimes in 
Brittany, sometimes in France, treated now as guests, now as 
prisoners, according to the changing policy of the rulers of those 
countries. The danger became the greater as young Richmond, 
when he grew up, evinced such talent and courage that he rather 



296 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book VI. 

Accession of the House of Tudor. Beginning of the new King’s Reign. 

tlian his uncle began to be considered formidable by the Yorkist 
princes, who endeavored to procure his surrender. This unwise 
proceeding caused him to be looked upon as the head of the Lan¬ 
castrian exiles,® and, by the intrigues of his mother, 
a § 18, P . 273. many of the Woodvi n e party b also were induced to 
b § l, p. 274. him aftep the accession of Richard the Third, a 

common hatred of the new king being their only bond of union. 

But when Richmond had gained the battle of Bos- 
«§ ll, p. 281. wor £j^ c he showed at once that he had won the 
crown for himself alone; and though, according to the agreement 
} made, he eventually married the Princess Elizabeth d 

d § 9, p. 280. j- A D 1 486] ? it was not until he had procured from the 
parliament a declaration that the regal dignity belonged to him¬ 
self and his hems, “ and none other,” which was as clearly contra¬ 
dictory to all idea of hereditary succession as the setting aside of 
the Earl of March to make way for Henry of Boling- 

e S 7 p 289 

s ’ * broke, nearly a century before. e 

§ 3. Richmond, upon whose head Stanley placed the crown/ was 
saluted as king on the field of battle by his followers, 
r § ll, P . 281. and he at once began tQ play the tyrant by seizing 

young Edward Plantagenet, then fifteen years of age, whose only 
offence was that he was the son and heir of the late 
* § 21, P . 273. Duke of clarenC8 .g His uncles had merely kept him 
in seclusion since the death of his father, but the new ruler sent 
him to the Tower, where, though styled Earl of Warwick after the 
death of his grandmother [a.d. 1490], the rest of his unhappy life 
was passed in such ignorance that an old writer says he hardly 
knew one beast or bird from another. 

§ 4. By slow marches the new king reached London [Aug. 27, 
1485], where he was received with enthusiasm; but he was not crown¬ 
ed until the 30th of October following, on account of a fatal epi¬ 
demic that prevailed in the capital. The ceremony was performed 
by the Cardinal Archbishop of Canterbury. Then a parliament was 
assembled [Nov. 7, 1485], which pursued the usual course of the 
last thirty years. The Lancastrian attainders, 107 in number, were 
reversed, and about thirty of the prominent Yorkists were con¬ 
demned. without form of trial. A little later [Jan. 18,1486] Henry 
married the Princess Elizabeth, who, as we have seen/ 
/ § 8, p. 2 . bad been eager become the wife of Richard. 

§ 5. Henry added many new features to the revolution on 


297 


Chapter I.] THE TUDORS. 

Assumptions of Royalty. The Court of Star-chamber. Insurrection. 

his own authority. First he established a permanent body¬ 
guard for himself, under the name of yeomen of the crown, 
a step that former kings had not thought necessary. Then 
he revoked all the crown grants from the time that Richard, 
Duke of York, had been first appointed Protector/ ^ 
which reduced most persons of any consequence 
to a complete dependence on him; and, to get rid of any trou¬ 
ble that the ordinary courts might occasion in judging any of 
these matters, he next induced his parliament to agree to the 
foundation of the Court of Star-chamber. This tribunal was com¬ 
posed of seven members of the council. Its powers were as exten¬ 
sive as he or his successors chose to make them, so that its very 
name became odious, and not without substantial reason. These 
proceedings plainly showed the Yorkists what they had to expect 
from the new ruler, and accordingly Lord Lovel (who had just 
been attainted), the Staffords (cousins of the late Duke of Bucking¬ 
ham), and others, rose in arms early in the year 1486. But their 
measures being badly taken, the rising was soon suppressed. Some 
sought refuge in sanctuaries, but the chief men escaped to Flanders, 
where, under the protection of Margaret of Burgun- b § ^ p m 
dy, b the sister of Richard the Third, they busied them¬ 
selves in preparing for a more formidable attempt in the following 
year. 

§ 6. Tliis was made in Ireland, where the house of York was 
in great favor, for there Duke Richard had been lord lieuten¬ 
ant, and there his son Clarence was bom. John, c§5jpm 
Earl of Lincoln/ who had been declared heir to the 
throne by Richard the Third, was now in Flanders, when a beauti¬ 
ful youth, called Lambert Simnel, appeared in Ireland, attended 
by Richard Simon, a young priest from Oxford, who declared that 
his charge was the Earl of Warwick (Edward Plantagenet), escaped 
from the Tower, and claimed support for him as the son of their 
countrymen, which was accorded without any appearance of dis¬ 
trust in the tale. At the same time rumors were spread that one 
at least of the sons of Edward the Fourth who were said to have 
been murdered by their uncle Richard d was still alive'; d § 4? p 2T6 
and Henry gave some appearance of truth to the idea 
by seizing their mother, the dowager queen, just at this very time, 
and imprisoning her for the rest of her life in the nunnery at 
Bermondsey. Her son by her first marriage, the Marquis of 
13* 


•298 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 


[Book VI. 

A Pretender in Ireland. Lincoln’s Invasion of Ireland. 

Dorset, was also imprisoned, but he was released after a few 
months. 

§ 7. The government of Ireland had been given by Henry to his 
uncle, Jasper Tudor, who was also created Duke of Bedford; but 
an Anglo-Irish noble, Fitzgerald, Earl of Kildare, was the deputy, 
who had had that office bestowed on him by statute for life, in the 
preceding reign. He was a warm partisan of the House of York, 
but he was too powerful to be removed. Probably he was privy to 
the scheme; but at all events he received the youth joyfully, and, 
utterly abjuring Henry, caused him to be solemnly crowned at 
Dublin by the archbishop, with the title of Edward the Sixth. 
Henry, to discredit the youth’s claim, brought the young earl out 
of the Tower and showed him in public, but to little purpose. 
The poor boy had been kept in seclusion so long that no one of 
any credit knew him; and the Yorkists plausibly maintained that 
Henry was attempting to impose on the world, and that theirs was 
the real earl. 

§ 8. Either believing this, or merely from enmity to Henry, the 
Duchess of Burgundy supplied her nephew, Lincoln,* 1 

§ 5, p. ~t 3. a -f orce 0 -f 2,000 veteran German soldiers under 

the command of a renowned leader named Martin Schwartz. Lin¬ 
coln, Lovel, and the rest passed over to Ireland,' and being there 
joined by the kinsmen of the Lord Deputy Fitzgerald, and some 
thousands of their followers, the whole body soon after landed in 
Lancashire, where Sir Thomas Broughton and all his tenantry 
•took arms in their cause. On their way through Yorkshire but 
few of the friends that they had reckoned on came to them, not 
liking the appearance of the wild, ill-armed Irish, though they 
sent money and food, and promised to join them after a single 
battle had been gained. 

§ 9. This selfish policy w r as fatal to the adventurers, as when 
they reached Nottinghamshire they were met by Henry at Stoke 
upon Trent, and utterly defeated after a well-fought battle. Lin¬ 
coln, Lovel, the two Lords Fitzgerald, Schwartz, Broughton, and 
the other leaders fell on the field, and their men were mercilessly 
butchered, both Irish and Germans being alike regarded as foreign- 
ers. Simnel and his tutor Simon were made prisoners, and their 
lives were spared—Simnel, that the Yorkists might be mortified at 
seeing him employed as a turnspit, for many of them still believed 
in him; and Simon, from a superstitious fear of sheddin g the 


THE TUDORS. 


Chapter I.] 


299 


Execution of Yorkists. Extortions. The Nobility robbed by the King. 

blood of a priest. Simon was doomed to imprisonment for life; 
and so was Bishop Stillington, who was charged with having favored 
Simnel, but whose real offence was that he had once been em¬ 
ployed in endeavoring to persuade the treacherous minister of the 
Duke of Brittany to surrender the Earl of Richmond, 11 
and had nearly succeeded. a ^ p ' 2S ^‘ 

§ 10. Henry first held a three days’ rejoicing at Lincoln for his 
victory; and then he proceeded to execute all who were accused 
of having favored the Yorkist cause and were not rich enough to 
ransom their lives at a heavy price. He next visited Yorkshire, 
where he acted in the same manner. The sums extorted he re¬ 
tained for himself; and he then asked for, and obtained from the 
parliament, a subsidy for his expenses. But this the Yorkshire 
people resisted, and they killed the Earl of Northumberland, who 
endeavored to enforce it. This nobleman had betrayed their fa¬ 
vorite, Richard, at Bosworth, b and was therefore odi¬ 
ous to them. Henry, however, released the attainted b § P ' 2S1 * 
Earl of Surrey from the Tower, and sent him into the north, when 
the money was paid. As a reward, the earl had his title restored, 
and even some part of his lands, and he was ever after a trusted 
adherent of the new line of kings, the second of whom created 
him Duke of Norfolk. 

§ 11. One settled purpose with Henry was to depress and hu¬ 
miliate the house of York and all the old nobility, which he very 
fully effected; but even a more important object with him was 
the acquisition of treasure, and he scrupled at no baseness to gain 
his end. This is well shown in his conduct to the orphan daugh¬ 
ter of the Duke of Brittany, in whose territories he had so long 
been sheltered. 

§ 12. That prince, soon after Richmond’s establishment on the 
tlirone, was threatened with invasion by the King of France, and 
in his distress he naturally looked for aid from his former guest, 
who owed his life to him. Henry, however, had no sense of honor 
or gratitude, and whilst pretending great concern, was really only 
seeking to benefit himself by the distress of his former host. He 
easily got a subsidy from his parliament for a war Avitli France in 
support of the duke; but at the same time he came to a secret un¬ 
derstanding with the French king, and, in lieu of equipping an 
army, he contented himself with allowing a few hundreds of Eng¬ 
lish adventurers to go to Brittany at their own expense, just as in 


300 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Rook VI. 

The King’s Ingratitude and Avarice. His Suspicions. Fate of the old Nobility. 

later days a Biitisli legion served in Spain. This enterprise was 
unsuccessful. The volunteers were all killed at the battle of St. 
Aubin, in July, 1488; and though Henry congratulated himself 
on having thus got rid of many troublesome subjects, the 
clamor was so great that he was at last obliged to send a small 
force of his own. But he was a gainer even by this. The French 
paid him for the troops being kept idle in garrisons that were not 
meant to be attacked, instead of taking the field, and the young 
Duchess of Brittany (who had become an orphan just after the fa¬ 
tal battle of St. Aubin) was obliged to bear all their expenses as if 
they were serving her. The consequence was, that the duchy was 
soon overrun, and the unfortunate princess was taken prisoner, when 
she was absolutely forced to marry the King of France, although 
she was already wedded by proxy to Maximilian of Germany. 

§ 13. Henry had found his kingdom at war with Scotland, and 
he made proposals for peace ; but as he declined to surrender Ber¬ 
wick,* which the Scots demanded, the negotiation 
§ 16 , p. ~S7. though, after a time, a truce was agreed to. 

Before this was done, all Scots were ordered to quit the realm, and 
some slight preparation for war had been made ; so, to repay him¬ 
self, Henry levied a “ benevolence,” b which he also 
b ^ 18, p ‘ 2 ‘ 2 ‘ employed as a test of men’s apparent liking for him, 
saying openly that he should value their love by the amount that 
each gave in proportion to his estate. This threat, for it was noth¬ 
ing else, brought him large sums from Ins bitter enemies, lest they 
should be ruined. But Henry, like a tyrant of earlier date, was 
quite content to be hated so long as he was also feared, and he 
held it as a maxim of State policy that wealthy subjects were more 
difficult to rule than poor ones. His suspicious temper made him 
act as his own minister, and he gave his confidence to no one, ex¬ 
cept in some slight degree to Cardinal Morton, who fyad lured 
Buckingham to destruction. He was now chancellor, and he beam 
the odium of having pointed out to Henry the readiest ways of car¬ 
rying his tyrannical intentions into effect. 

§ 14. The old nobility had been reduced to half its number by 
the civil war, and most of the survivors being Yorkists, they now 
were poor also. Henry raised some of his adherents to the peer¬ 
age, but he took care that they should never become too great or 
too rich through his lavish grants; and when occasionally a York¬ 
ist obtained the reversal of his own or his ancestor’s attainder, it 


THE TUDORS. 


301 


Chapter I.] 

Origin of the English Yeomanry. 


Perkin Warbeck, or Richard, in Ireland. 


was always at tlie price of a large part of his estates, and he usu¬ 
ally received only a lower title. Under the pretext of relieving the 
distresses of the nobles he allowed them to dispose of a large part 
of their lands, and these being bought by merchants, traders, and 
farmers, a middle class grew up between the peerage and the poor, 
which in the next reign purchased the church lands also, and thus, 
holding the greater part of the soil of the country, soon became 
the chief power in the State. This was the origin of the powerful 
“ yeomanry ” of England. 

§ 15. Henry never ceased to show his distrust of the Yorkists 
instead of attempting to conciliate them, and, as a natural conse¬ 
quence, their machinations against him were endless. Seven years 
of his reign were disturbed by the proceedings of a young man, 
known in liistory as Perkin Warbeck, but who asserted himself to 
be Richard Duke of York, the son of Edward the Fourth, and who 
was received as such by many of that king’s old friends. These 
were men who had lived in Edward’s court, and who either told 
the truth or were guilty or wilful falsehood, for they could not be 
themselves deceived. The matter has never yet been fully proved, 
either way ; but the account that the young man always gave of 
himself has a far greater air of probability than either of those 
which Henry published, for he put forth several, which contradict 
each other. The very different treatment, too, that the young man 
received when he was made prisoner, to that afforded to Lambert 
Simnel, ft is hard to be accounted for except by sup- p m 
posing that he was really a prince. It seems thus 
reasonable to style him Richard, instead of Perkin Warbeck, a 
name that at once brands him as an impostor. 

§ 16. In the summer of 1492 this young man landed at Cork, 
and at once assumed the style of a prince. He was tall, of fair 
Complexion, of courtly manners, and handsomely dressed; and his 
strong resemblance to King Edward was undeniable. John Water, 
a wealthy merchant, who had not long before been mayor of the 
city, at once espoused his cause, as did many of the citizens. The 
Archbishop of Dublin, the Lord Prior of Kilmainham, who was at 
the head of the Knights of St. John in Ireland, the Earl of Des¬ 
mond, and Lord Barry also joined him ; but Kildare, b b § 7 p 298 
the deputy, put off the time with courteous excuses. 

Othere held back, waiting for him to declare himself, as he was a 
well-known Yorkist; and lief ore much had been done in the way of 


802 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 


[Book VI. 

Invasion of France. Warbeck acknowledged in Flanders. Treachery. 

raising troops, Charles, the French king, invited Richard to his 
court. Here he was treated as a prince, and the Yorkist exiles 
(who were now as numerous in France as the Lancastrians had 
once been) were allowed to assemble around him, with the view of 
their being employed against Henry, who was at last about to carry 
out his threatened invasion. 

§ 17. But Henry, though he landed at Calais in October with a 
formidable army, had no real intention of making war. . He be¬ 
sieged Boulogne for a few days without effect, and then withdrew, 
to the great disgust of his followers. They had been obliged to 
incur vast expenses in equipping themselves, and now that they had 
to return without having either gained a battle or put hundreds of 
wealthy prisoners to ransom, they looked on the enterprise as a 
mere scheme of the king to impoverish them, for he let his distrust 
of rich subjects be everywhere known. A treaty was soon after¬ 
ward concluded, by which Henry agreed to prevent any further 
aid being given to the Bretons, who were in arms against their 
French masters; and Charles was no longer to shelter Richard, 
though he absolutely refused to give him up. 

§ 18. The young man on this repaired to Flanders, where Mar¬ 
garet, the Duchess of Burgundy, received him with joy as her 
nephew. She styled him “ the White Rose of England,” and gave 
him a guard of honor dressed in the well-known Yorkist livery 
colors of murrey and blue. At her court he remained for nearly 
three years, the cause of great anxiety and alarm to Henry. Many 
of the Yorkists went over to Richard ; others sent an agent to make 
inquiries, but were betrayed by him. This agent was Sir Robert 
Clifford, a son of “ the butcher Clifford ” who killed the young 
Earl of Rutland at Wakefield/ but who himself passed 

“ § 24, p. 263. ^ a Y or ki s t. He acted with detestable treachery; 
for whilst he assured his employers that Richard was indeed the 
long-lost duke, he betrayed the names of all his correspondents to 
Henry. Among them were Lord Fitzwaiter, Sir William Daube- 
ney, and Sir Robert Ratcliffe, all well-known Yorkists ; but Henry 
was more concerned to find that his own chamberlain, Sir William 
Stanley, had declared that if he were once convinced of the truth 
of Richard’s tale, he would never bear arms against him. 

§ 19. Clifford was recalled, and had a secret interview in the 
Tower with Henry, who soon made up his mind how to act. The 
persons named were summoned to attend him as if for some ordi- 


Chapter I.] THE TUDORS. 303 

Murder of Stanley. Warbeck styled King in Scotland. Insurrection in Cornwall. 

nary purpose, when they were seized, attainted without trial, and 
beheaded. So important did Clifford’s services appear that Henry 
paid him £500 out of his own purse. Sir William Stanley had 
greatly contributed to gain the battle of Bosworth, where he set 
Richard’s crown upon Henry’s a head ; he was also the a ^ ^ ^ 

brother of Lord Stanley, who was Henry’s step-father; 
and the expression into which he had been betrayed by Clifford, 
though displeasing to the king, had nothing treasonable in it. But 
he was very wealthy, and soon disappeared. The common im¬ 
pression was that he was “ murdered for his money,” which was a 
severe condemnation of Henry’s government. 

§ 20. In a few months after the execution of Stanley, Richard 
sailed [a.d. 1495] with a force to invade England. It had more 
men of note in it, and was at least as strong as that which landed 
with Richmond at Milford-haven ; but a party that was treacher¬ 
ously invited on shore at Deal was cut off, when the rest returned, 
dispirited, to Flanders. Because they failed, they have been de¬ 
scribed only as “ a rabblement of knaves.” Henry, by granting 
great commercial privileges to the subjects of the Duke of Burgun¬ 
dy, and by bribing his ministers, soon after procured Richard’s ex¬ 
pulsion from Flanders, when he repaired, for the second time, to 
Ireland. But his partisans remembered how the ill-armed Irish had 
fared at Stoke, and by their advice he went to Scotland, where the 
king (James the Fourth), received him most cordially, styling him 
King Richard the Fourth, and gave him in marriage a kinswoman 
of his own, the beautiful Lady Catherine Gordon, a daughter of 
the Earl of Huntly. 

§ 21. In October, 1496, James and Richard advanced into Eng¬ 
land with a large army, but the dislike to the Scots was so great 
that very few of the Yorkists would join them. The Scots, in spite 
of Richard’s interference, plundered the country, and then retired. 
War with Scotland was now determined on, and a subsidy granted 
for the purpose; but the people of Cornwall refused to pay then- 
share, asserting that they had nothing to do with the north coun¬ 
try. Headed by Lord Audley, a man of ruined fortune, Flam- 
mock, a lawyer, and Joseph, a blacksmith, they took up arms, and 
actually marched to London; but they were defeated at Black- 
heath [June 22, 1497], and their leaders executed. The common 
people found their way back to the west, checked rather than sub¬ 
dued, and ready to rise again when the occasion might offer. 


304 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book VI. 

James and Warbeck invade England. The latter a prisoner. His treatment. 

§ 22. They hnd not long to wait. James and Richard had again 
entered England, but with the same result as before. Richard 
then withdrew to Ireland, when he was at once invited to England 
by the Cornishmen. He landed in Whitsand bay, near Penzance, 
and being joined by large numbers of the people, lie seized the 
strong post -of St. Michael’s Mount. Here he left his wife, and 
marched to Exeter. The walls, however, were strong, and the 
townsmen, who hated the Cornishmen as foreigners, 1 made so stout 
a defence that he soon abandoned the siege and pushed forward 
into Somersetshire. Here, at Taunton, he met the vanguard of the 
royal army, and hearing that the main body, led by Henry himself, 
was approaching, his courage failed him, and he fled, Sept. 21,1497, 
with a few horsemen to Beaulieu, in the New Forest, where he took 
sanctuary. But this shameful desertion of his followers availed 
him little. The monastery was surrounded, and he was soon in¬ 
duced to surrender on a promise that his life should be spared, as 
it was, though only for a time. 

§ 23. Henry at first treated his prisoner with such consideration 
as is usually only bestowed on persons of real rank, and not on 
detected impostors. He placed liis wife in the court of his queen, 
and allowed Richard a horse, beside paying various sums of money 
for him, even down to his tailor’s bill, as remains to this day duly 
entered in Henry’s privy purse accounts. But he reimbursed him¬ 
self for these and all his other expenses by levying enormous fines 
on all who could be in any way represented as Richard’s adherents; 
and the list of these, which is still preserved among the public 
records, shows how numerous they were. Richard’s imprisonment 
evidently was but light (probably treacherously so), but an attempt 
to escape led to his being sent to the Tower, which he only left for 
the scaffold. 

§ 24. It has been mentioned that the unhappy Earl of Warwick 
was shut up in the Tower by Henry in the very beginning of his 
rei«n. a Fourteen years had now passed, and Henry 

a § 3, p. 296. already looking about for a wife for his eldest 

son, Arthur, a boy of twelve years of age. He applied to Ferdinand 
of Castile, a man as heartless as himself, who replied that he could 
not think’of giving his daughter in marriage whilst so near a rela¬ 
tive of the former kings existed. Henry had no scruple about re- 

i They were really so, if manners, customs, and language afford any test, long after 
this; and the difference has not entirely disappeared even at the present day. 


THE TUDORS. 


305 


Chaptek I.] 

Warbeck and Earl of Warwick beheaded. 


The King’s Avarice exhibited. 


moving such an obstacle, and he also managed to rid himself of 
Richard at the same time. The two prisoners were allowed to as¬ 
sociate. Spies listened to their conversation, charged them, whether 
truly or untruly, with planning to escape, and they were both exe¬ 
cuted as traitors in the summer of 1499. Warwick, in consideration 
of his royal blood, was beheaded within the Tower; whilst Richard 
was hanged and quartered at Tyburn, his faithful a g 16 t 
associate John Water, once the mayor of Cork, a suf¬ 
fering with him. 

§ 25. From this time forward Henry lived undisturbed by any 
real attempt to dispossess him, although to the end of his life he 
continued to enrich himself at the expense of all who were in any 
way connected with the fallen house of York, under the pretence 
that they were conspiring against him. This was the case with the 
De la Poles, the brothers of John, Earl of Lincoln, b who 

b 8 6. D 297. 

fell in the battle of Stoke. On the death of their 

father the dukedom of Suffolk was suppressed, on Henry’s own 

authority, and Edmund, the eldest son, only received the lower 

title of earl two years afterward on paying a large sum of money. 

On the death of Richard the hopes of the Yorkists were believed 

to rest on Edmund, and finding himself in danger from Henry’s 

suspicions, he and his brother Richard withdrew to Flanders. They 

were at once attainted, and several gentlemen were executed as 

then- confederates. Among them was Sir James Tyrell, who is 

usually regarded as the murderer of the young princes in the 

Tower,® but the charge was not made against him until 

’ ° ° c § 4, p. 276- 

long after his death, and is therefore probably untrue, 

at least so far as he is concerned - . 

§ 26. As the Yorkists seemed now to be finally crushed, the 
Spanish king had given his daughter Catherine to the young Prince 
Arthur with a splendid fortune. But the death of the youth in a 
few months threatened to undo all that had been accomplished, 
and the loss of his son was a light matter to Henry compared with 
repaying the money. He therefore compelled his remaining son, a 
boy of only eleven years of age, to enter into a contract of marriage 
with his sister-in-law, who was a handsome young woman of 
eighteen. The marriage, which was sanctioned by the Pope, though 
repugnant to every proper feeling, was not celebrated until after 
Henry's death; but it eventually exercised a most important in¬ 
fluence on the affairs of the world. Henry also married Iks 


306 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 


[Book YI. 

The King’s “ Ravening Wolves.” His Baseness toward his Benefactor. 

daughter Margaret to the King of Scotland, and though he did not 
follow the example of the Spanish monarch in giving her a splendid 
dower, the result was more satisfactory, as her descendants wore 
the crown of both kingdoms, and thus put an end to the wars that 
had so often desolated North Britain. 

§ 27. Henry’s wife, Elizabeth of York, a died in 1503, shortly be¬ 
fore the marriage of her daughter, and he at once 

§ 4, p. 296. gen j. am p agsa( jors to various courts to treat for another 
partner, but they could find no princess sufficiently wealthy, and 
the expense of their journeys was incurred in vain. He was better 
served, however, by “ two ravening wolves,” as a writer of the 
time calls them, who filled his coffers by the most scandalous 
means, reviving obsolete laws and perverting existing ones, so that 
every rich man stood in danger of being ruined by them, though 
guiltless of any real offence. These “ wolves” were two lawyers, 
named Richard Empson and Edmund Dudley, of whom the first 
was the son of a poor sieve-maker, but the other was by birth a 
“ gentleman.” They took into a kind of partnership with them a 
band of men of infamous characters, who, under the name of 
“ promoters,” carried out their designs by perjury, though in the 
name of the law. Some of them were appointed under-sheriffs, 
and in that capacity they named others who sat as jurors, and 
before these others bore false witness, whilst those who knew the 
truth dared not contradict them from fear of being proceeded 
against themselves. 

§ 28. Thus every one who was accused was sure to be convicted; 
and it was soon seen that the only way to escape utter ruin was by 
coming to some agreement with the “ wolves,” who thus extorted 
enormous sums of money, often in the shape of a yearly pension. 
The greater part went into the king’s treasury, where it was kept 
under his own lock and key; but the agents enriched themselves 
also, and though “ noble men grudged, mean men kicked, poor 
men lamented, and preachers openly, at Paul’s Cross and other 
places, exclaimed, rebuked, and detested,” the oppression endured 
until Henry became the richest and most odious king in Christen¬ 
dom. One peculiarly base transaction marked his latter years. 
Philip, Duke of Burgundy, on his way to Spain was driven on 
the English coast by a tempest, and was welcomed* by Henry with 
great show of regard. But before he could obtain leave to depart 
lie was obliged to agree to a commercial treaty, which gave u ) all 


Chapter I.] THE TUDORS. 307 

The King shows Remorse. His Character. Mean Treatment of his Family. 

the advantages that he had formerly gained as the price of the ex¬ 
pulsion of Richard, 11 and also to surrender Edmund de 

a §20, p. 303. 

la Pole, who had long been sheltered in his dominions. 

Philip had the grace to stipulate that Henry would spare his cap¬ 
tive’s life, and he did so; but he let his successor know that he was 
not bound by his father’s promise, and Suffolk was beheaded after 
a seven years’ imprisonment. 

§ 29. Henry’s later years were marked by much sickness, in the 
form of gout and consumption, and, in fear of death, he occasion¬ 
ally released poor debtors, and bestowed some small gifts on mon¬ 
asteries and hospitals; but the exactions of Empson and Dudley 
were never checked by him, and when he died [April 21, 1509], at 
his new palace of Richmond, he left an enormous treasure behind 
him, which his prodigal successor very soon dissipated. 

§ 30. Henry was a tall, thin man, of a severe yet anxious aspect, 
who never moved abroad without his guards, and made no attempt 
to gain the favor of the people by mixing freely with them, as the 
Yorkist princes had done. His character hardly needs delineation. 
His courage and address gained him a throne, but he had none of 
the other high qualities that ought to accompany such a position. 
He had known actual poverty in his youth, and his every action 
afterwards seemed devoted to guarding against such a calamity for 
the future. Hence he cared not how he gained money, though no 
doubt he was best pleased when he could extract it from the York¬ 
ists. Their depression, indeed, seemed the great purpose of his 
life after the acquisition of treasure, and he often managed to com¬ 
bine the two. 

§ 81. Richard the Third had provided for the widow of 
Edward the Fourth, but Henry, her son-in-law, resumed the estates 
as the gift of an usurper, and, besides imprisoning her, married her 
daughters, against their will, to noblemen who would take them with¬ 
out portions, though one of them escaped this humiliation by becom¬ 
ing a nun at Dartford. His treatment of his wife was no better; for 
he kept her in complete dependence, and took her plate in pledge 
when he lent her money to pay her debts. The whole character of 
his reign was in accordance with his private life—harsh, cold, and 
suspicious; but it forms a memorable era, as being the turning- 
point when the old forms of government and living began to 
pass away, and the foundations were laid of something like the 
present state of society, when laws and commerce have raised 


308 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book VI. 

Accession of Henry the Eighth. The Promise of his Beginning. 

lip powers in the State that were all but unknown under the 
Plantagenets. 


CHAPTER n. 

reign of Henry the Eighth. [a.d. 1509 to 1547.] 

§ 1. The eldest surviving son of Henry the Seventh, who now came 
to the throne, a tall, handsome youth of eighteen, was in all out¬ 
ward respects as complete a contrast to his father as could well be 
imao-ined. He succeeded to unbounded wealth, and set himself to 
enjoy it, giving pompous entertainments, and taking an active part 
in every diversion, so that he at once gained a personal popularity 
which he never entirely lost. He was proclaimed king on the 22d 
of April, 1509, and was crowned with his queen (Catherine of 
Arragon, whom he had just married) on the 24th of June fol¬ 
lowing. 

§ 2. His first step was to send Empson and Dudley a to the 
Tower, and then he appointed commissioners to re- 
»§ p. °06. ce * ve £j ie com piaints of all who had been injured by 
them, promising full compensation, lest, as he said, his father’s 
soul should suffer for their iniquity. But this good intention was 
never carried out. The claims rose to so vast an amount that the 
treasurer despaired of paying them, and, instead, the “wolves” 
were put to death [Aug. 17, 1510] on an absurd charge of treason. 
The money thus saved paid the expenses of the king’s marriage 
with Catherine, which was solemnized in spite of the advice of 
Archbishop Wareham. The virtues of this unhappy princess had 
the effect, for many years, of imposing a wholesome restraint on 
the conduct of her husband, so that his government, though with 
many blots, was to be preferred to that of his father. But when 
she lost her influence the whole current of affairs was changed, 
and henceforward he may justly be considered the worst of Eng¬ 
lish kings. 

§ 3. One of the earliest results of the king’s marriage was that 
he was involved in a war with France, which was the beginning 
of a series of interferences in the affairs of the Continent that lasted 
during his whole reign. The treasure that he had inherited ena- 

O O 



Chapter II.] THE TUDORS. 309 

War with Franco. Henry’s Schemes of Conquest. Death of his Admiral. 

bled him to equip fleets and armies, and even to take an emperor 
into his daily pay; but he had to do with men of much greater 
abilities than himself in Francis the First and Charles the Fifth, 
and his schemes of conquest 1 came to nothing. Each alternately 
sought his alliance or threatened him with invasion, as they saw 
their own interest at the moment, so that he was hardly ever at 
peace; and though the plunder of the Church gave him an amount 
of treasure such as no English ruler had ever before possessed, he 
spent it all, and died hopelessly in debt. 

§ 4. The war with France commenced in 1512, with a defeat in¬ 
flicted on the French fleet near Brest, when the largest ship on each 
side (the English “ Regent ” and the French “ Cordelier ”) was 
burnt, and some 1,600 men perished in them. Sir Edward How¬ 
ard, the English admiral, soon after blocked up the French fleet 
in Brest, and regarding victory as certain, he wrote to invite the 
king to come over and have the glory of capturing it. Henry was 
willing to make the attempt, but his council eagerly protested 
against it, and wrote a letter to the admiral blaming him for his 
proposal. Sir Edward, who felt aggrieved at their tone, made a 
desperate assault on some French galleys, and perished. 2 Henry, 
when he heard of this mishap, gave the command of the fleet to 
Sir Edward’s brother, and soon afterward passed over to France, 
where the towns of Terouenne and Toumay were captured under 
his eyes, the Emperor Maximilian of Germany commanding his 
cavalry, wearing the Tudor colors of green and white, and receiv¬ 
ing for his pay one hundred golden crowns daily. The cavalry 
bore but a small part in the operations in the field ; but on one oc¬ 
casion they had a skirmish with a body of French nobles and 
knights who took so precipitately to their heels, leaving many pris¬ 
oners behind them, that the affair was contemptuously styled the 
Battle of the Spurs. That was late in August, 1513. Among the 


1 How extravagant these were in popular opinion, if not in his own, appears from a 
manuscript still preserved among the State Papers of the early part of his reign, which 
indulges in the prophecy that “ he shall subdue the realm of France, recover Constan¬ 
tinople and the Holy Land from the Turks, die Emperor of Rome, and eternal bliss 
shall be his end.” 

2 He boarded the French admiral at the head of a party of seventeen men, but be¬ 
ing unsupported owing to his galley drifting away, all except one man were driven into 
the sea at the point of the pike. Seeing capture or death inevitable, Sir Edward threw 
his gold chain and whistle into the sea, saying that the French should never have the 
spoils of an English admiral to make a show of. 


310 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 


[Book VI. 

A Scottish Invasion of England. Battle of Flodden. 

French knights at that time was the famous Bayard, a “ Chevalier 
without fear and without reproach,” and who was one of the last 
of the true representatives of the ideal of chivalry. 

§ 5. In little more than a fortnight afterward, however, a battle 
of a very different description was fought at Flodden, among the 
Cheviot hills, on the borders of Scotland. James the Fourth was 
the brother-in-law of Henry, but he was in close alliance with 
France, and in the interest of the French king he invaded Eng¬ 
land, when Queen Catherine greatly exerted herself to equip an 
army, for she was regent of the kingdom during her husband’s 
absence. The command was given to the Earl of Surrey (the father 
of the admiral who had perished at Brest), a who had 
a § 4, p. 309. gon T] 10inas Howard, and many of the 

north country gentry. Thomas Howard was particularly obnox¬ 
ious to the Scots, as he had, a short time before, defeated and 
killed Andrew Barton, a noted sea-rover, who was regarded as the 
best mariner in Scotland, 1 and they, in consequence, threatened 
loudly to take vengeance on him. He therefore obtained leave to 
quit the fleet, and led 5,000 of his men to serve on land, where they 
formed the vanguard of his father’s army. 

§ 6. The Scots had been very successful in their inroad, having 
beaten down several castles and gained much plunder. A large 
part of their army had gone home with their spoils, and when the 
English appeared in superior force the more prudent wished to 
follow them. James, however, seized the hill of Flodden, and say¬ 
ing scornfully that “ all who were afraid had liberty to retire,” 
prepared for battle, placing his guns so as to command the river. 
After a couple of days passed in messages between the earl and his 
son and the Scots, urging the latter to descend into the plain, ac¬ 
cording to a promise that James had formerly given, Thomas 
Howard and his shipmen forced their way up the hill, and almost 
destroyed a large body of Scottish spearmen. The main army of 
the Scots stood firm for a while on the top of the hill, and beat off 
the Cheshire men; but, being greatly galled by the-archers, they at 
last descended, the king and his nobles marching on foot like the 
rest. 2 This was the opportunity that Surrey had looked for. The 
Scots soon found themselves hemmed in on all sides, and though 


1 A naval war existed between the Scots and the Portuguese, and Barton had plun¬ 
dered several English ships on the pretence that they had Portuguese goods on board. 

2 This was a measure seldom resorted to unless in desperate circumstances, and 


THE TUDORS. 


311 


Chapter Ill 

The English Victorious. Marriage of the Princess Mary. 

they sold their lives very dearly, they were almost annihilated. 
Nearly 9,000 of them lay dead on the field that night [Sept. 9,1513], 
and the body of the king was found the next day almost cut to 
pieces. The loss of the English was hardly one-fifth as great. The 
Scottish cannon were all taken, and were much valued as trophies; 1 
but the victors lost all their baggage, through an attack made by 
night by the men of Tynedale, a band of borderers who lived by 
the plunder of English and Scots alike. 

§ 7. This victory was very welcome to Henry, who returned to 
England shortly afterwards, and rewarded the Earl of Surrey with 
the title of Duke of Norfolk, which his father had lost, with his 
life, at Bosworth.® A peace with France followed, 
one of the conditions of which was, that the French “ § p ’ 281 ' 
king (a feeble old man) should marry the Princess Mary, who was 
Henry s sister, and was then [a.d. 1514] only in her seventeenth 
year. The princess was sent to France accordingly, and the wed¬ 
ding took place, but in three months’ time she was left a widow. 
The Duke of Suffolk (Charles Brandon) 2 was sent to bring her 
back to England, but she left behind her one of her attendants, 
Anne Boleyn, who also was destined for a short time to wear a 
crown. 

§ 8. This newly created Duke of Suffolk was the one person for 
whom King Henry seems to have entertained a regard that lasted 
all his life through. He professed much esteem for several others, 
but the slightest thwarting of his inclination was sufficient to bring 
them all to destruction. Charles Brandon alone was more fortu¬ 
nate. His uncle had been killed at Bosworth, b bearing 
Richmond’s standard, and he was brought up at court b § U ’ P ‘ 281 ‘ 
as the playfellow of the young Tudors. He became very profi¬ 
cient in all martial exercises, and he bore a conspicuous part in the 
tourneys, and masquings, and revels of the new reign. He was 
knighted, then made a peer, as Lord Lisle [a.d. 1513], and soon 

"’as meant as an assurance to the foot that their leaders would stand by them even to 
the death. The contrary course of riding off and leaving them to their fate in any 
emergency, was but too common with the knights and nobles of the middle ages. 

1 Among them were several very handsome brass culverins (about the same as the 
modern eighteen-pounder), which were styled the Seven Sisters. Guns in those days 
usually had names, like ships at present. 

2 Edmund de la Pole, Earl of Suffolk, after a long imprisonment, was beheaded in 
1513, and his lather’s title of duke was bestowed, soon afterward, on Charles Brandon, 
a court favorite. 


312 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book VI. 

Brandon in France. He marries the widowed Mary. His “Proud Humility.” 

afterward, as we have seen,* Duke of Suffolk. He repaired to 
France to take part in the joustings at the young 
a § 7, p. 811. queen , g wec iding, and displayed so much address as to 
rouse the jealousy of the French nobles, who meanly employed a 
gigantic German to oppose him. This was in vain. The queen 
was present, and, forgetful of her dignity, when she saw the giant 
approach, cried out, “ Haim not my gentle Charles! ” But there 
was no cause for her fear. The duke overthrew the giant, and 
knowing him to be a mere hired man-at-arms, and not a knight, 
instead of taking his life contented himself with cudgelling him 
with the broken staff of his own lance until he cried for mercy. 

§ 9. Though still a young man, Suffolk had already been mar¬ 
ried twice, and he had since sought the hand of Margaret, the 
daughter of the Emperor Maximilian. But he next tried for a 
higher prize, and gained it, for he secretly wedded the widowed 
French queen, Henry’s sister, b and, to the astonish- 
b § 7 , P . 3ii. ment of mogt men ^ the favor of his king, 

who insisted on their being married afresh, with all the pomp of 
royalty. In one of the pageants that followed, Suffolk appeared 
with the trappings of his horse on one side of cloth of gold, and 
on the other of frieze, with a motto on each alluding to his queenly 
partner and himself. On one was to be read, 

“ Cloth of gold, do not despise, 

Though thou art matched with cloth of frieze.” 

And on the other, 

“ Cloth of frieze, be not too bold. 

Though thou art matched with cloth of gold.” 

§ 10. This example of “ proud humility ” was very pleasing to 
the king, but it was lost on one of those who witnessed it and 
might have profited by it. This was Thomas Wolsey, the son of 
an Ipswich butcher, who, though a priest, in less than twenty 
yearn, by unwearied diligence in everything but church affairs, 
raised himself from the humble position of tutor in the Marquis 
of Dorset’s family to be lord chancellor, archbishop, cardinal, 
and papal legate, and aspired to become Pope. All the affairs of 
the kingdom passed through his hands, and he tried to grasp at 
those of all Christendom also. His household was as sumptuous 
as that of the king. Rival monarclis heaped favors and pensions 
on him. He seemed to make peace and war at his pleasure, and 
he had the absurd arrogance, in writing to foreign powers, to use 


Chapter II.] THE TUDORS. 313 

Arrogance of Cardinal Wolsey. The English ravage France. Wolsey’s Exactions. 

the expression, “ Ego et Rex mens ” (I and my King), “ as if,” as it 
was afterwards remarked in the parliament, “the king was his ser¬ 
vant.” Well might Archbishop Wareham (who had been stripped of 
the chancellorship that Wolsey might hold it) exclaim, “ This man 
is drunk with too much prosperity.” At present, however, and for 
some years afterward, all went smoothly with him. The Duke of 
Buckingham incurred his displeasure, and lost his head in conse¬ 
quence. 1 The proudest noble no longer dared withstand him in his 
“ full-blown dignity ; ” whilst every quarrel between the King of 
France and the Emperor Maximilian only added to his wealth, as he 
sold the aid of “ his king ” first to one party and then to the other. 

§11. By Wolsey’s advice Henry went to France in the year 
1520, and held interviews with the king, on what was called the 
Field of Cloth of Gold (near Calais), so lavish were the adorn¬ 
ments of the two courts ; and soon afterward Wolsey paid a visit 
with almost equal pomp to the German emperor. A war with 
France followed [a.d. 1522], when the French king attempted the 
conquest of Ireland, promising to put Richard de la Pole, who 
now bore the title of “ the White Rose of England,” 2 in posses¬ 
sion of it. In return, France was ravaged on the coast by the 
Earl of Surrey (the Lord Thomas Howard of Flod- 
den), a and up to the gates of Paris by the Duke of ^ 5 ’ P ' 313 ‘ 
Suffolk. 15 These operations, of course, demanded b ^ l ' P ' 31 
large supplies of money, and a “ benevolence ” c sup- ^ 18, p ‘ 
plied it for the year 1522; but the next year another large sum 
was wanted, and to gain it “ my Lord Legate’s Grace ” (such was 
Wolsey’s title) condescended to visit the House of Parliament. 
He did at last obtain a grant, but with so much difficulty that he 
resolved to pursue another course for the future. 

§ 12. From this time forward we trace only the defeats and 
humiliations of the proud cardinal. The Pope died in 1524, 
and Wolsey, it may be said, nominated himself for the office. 
But this did not suit the views of Maximilian, and with the 
certainty of offending the haughty favorite, he declined his assist- 

1 The charge against the dnke was, that he had consulted astrologers about his 
chance of succession to the throne ; but his real offences were, his refusing on some 
public occasion to give way to the proud cardinal, and also his great wealth. 

2 He had long been in the service of the King of France, having joined it when the 
war of 1512 broke out. In revenge, Henry beheaded his brother, the imprisoned Eax-1 
of Suffolk (see note 2, page 311), the first of many judicial murders, from similar 
motives, that disgraced his reign. 

. 14 


314 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book VI. 

Battle of Pavia. Wolsey, alarmed, courts Popularity. His Hypocrisy plain. 

ance. Wolsey at once went over to the French party, taking “ his 
king” with him, though the emperor was Henry’s nephew nd 
the consequence was a coldness between them which led to war 
in the year 1528. 

§ 18. Before things had reached this pass several matters had 
occurred that had more important consequences than the war itself. 
In the first place, the French king was defeated and made prisoner 
at Pavia, on the 24th of February, 1525, so that the alliance with 
him was an unprofitable affair, for wanting all his treasure for his 
ransom he had none to spare for the cardinal. The battle of Pavia, 
however, had one consolation for Henry, as his hated enemy, 
li 313 ^ c * iar( ^ c ^ e P°l e 5 * was there slain. The king 
’ P ’ ° showed his joy on the occasion by making several new 
peers. Then Wolsey tried to extort money by means of a commis¬ 
sion, instead of applying to the parliament, but this was resisted on 
all hands, and the scheme had to be abandoned. 

§ 14. Thus at one stroke Wolsey lost the favor of his master, and 
though he tried to regain it by presenting the magnificent palace 
of Hampton Court, which he had just built, to the king, it had but 
a temporary effect. It was seen that he could no longer be relied 
on to meet every demand that his prodigal master might choose to 
make, and therefore he was no longer valued. Sensible of this, he 
now, for the first time in his life, appeared willing to court popular 
favor. The people of Norfolk and Suffolk had been particularly 
violent in resisting the commission, and though the scheme was 
abandoned it was thought necessary, for the support of authority, 
s 5 206 some them before the Star-chamber court. b 

b 1 ' ~ Here they were roundly rated for their conduct, and 
ordered to find surety for their good behavior in future. They 
replied that they had done nothing wrong in resisting an unlawful 
demand, and no surety would they give. The council threatened 
to commit them all to prison, when the cardinal came forward 
and said “ He would be surety for his own countrymen,” and so 
they were dismissed. But this did not make them forget that 
“ their countryman ” it was who had caused all their trouble by 
his illegal conduct. 

§ 15. Scarcely had this discontent been appeased when another 
broke out, in consequence of the cardinal’s high-handed proceed¬ 
ings. He professed to be a patron of learning, and he obtained 
the royal license to found two great establishments, to be called 


Chapter II.] THE TUDORS. 315 

Suppression of Monasteries. Validity of Queen Catherine’s Marriage questioned. 

Cardinal’s College, at Oxford and at Ipswich. His mode of rais¬ 
ing f yids for this purpose furnished the precedent for the suppres¬ 
sion of the monasteries, which took place after his death. By his 
influence with the Pope he was allowed to seize on the property of 
several small monasteries on his own allegation that they were ill- 
conducted, and this plunder he devoted to his own foundations. 
But in one instance at least, at Bayham in Sussex, the people of 
the neighborhood drove out his officers and replaced the monks. 
“ All men cursed and grudged at the cardinal,” says a writer of 
the time, and “ the butcher’s dog ” was the name that no punish¬ 
ments could hinder them applying to him in common discourse. 
He knew also that both Queen Catherine a and her 

D b 1^ p. oUo* 

nephew, the emperor, disliked and distrusted him, and 
in revenge he took a step that brought great trouble upon them 
and ended in his own ruin. 

§ 16. It has been mentioned that Archbishop Wareliam objected 
to the marriage of Henry with his brother’s widow, b ^ ^ ^ ^ 
but he was overruled, and the royal couple had now 
lived for sixteen years in harmony; but, to Henry’s great disappoint¬ 
ment, they had no son, two having died in infancy. Their only 
living child was the Princess Mary, and when a marriage between 
her and the son of the King of France was proposed, though they 
were both children, the French ambassador expressed a doubt 
whether her parents’ marriage was a valid one. Wolsey communi¬ 
cated this doubt to the king, and to magnify his own importance 
and to ruin the queen at the same time, he suggested that he could 
prevail on the Pope to dissolve the marriage, and thus allow Henry 
to wed some other woman who might give him his much-desired 
male heir. It w r as really a matter of public concern, lest a war for 
the succession should break out on his death. The Pope was at 
once applied to, and seemed disposed to comply, only he dared not 
offend the emperor. ' He therefore took the middle course of ap¬ 
pointing two cardinals (Wolsey was one of them, and the other, 
Campeius, who held an English bishopric) to inquire into the 
matter. The Pope (Clement the Eighth) had been not long before 
a prisoner in the hands of the imperialists, by whom he had been 
so harshly treated that, though now at liberty, he was in mortal 
fear of them. Hence he acted the feeble part of first intrusting a 
bull, granting the divorce, to Campeius, and then ordering him to 
destroy it and remit the cause to Rome. 


316 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book VI. 

Henry seeks a Divorce. The Queen Protests. Henry s Love for Anne Boleyn. 

§ 17. Accordingly, near the end of the year 1528, Cardinal Cam- 
peius arrived in England, when the king made a speech to his 
parliament, declaring that he was troubled in mind at the thought 
that he had probably been living in sin for so many years, and that 
it was this, and not any dislike to the queen, that had caused him to 
act as he had done. Next the cardinals waited on the queen, and 
endeavored to persuade her to consent to a divorce, but she steadily 
refused, saying that “ she was the king’s true wife, and would 
never disgrace her child by allowing that her marriage was unlaw¬ 
ful.” 

§ 18. In the summer of the following year [a. d. 1529], the car¬ 
dinals held a court, at which both the king and the queen appeared. 
Ilenry professed his readiness to stand by their award, but Cathe¬ 
rine protested against them as partial judges, 1 and throwing herself 
at her husband’s feet made a pathetic appeal to him. It failed to 
move him, when she declared that she appealed to Rome, and left 
the court, never more to appear in it. For form’s sake, the cardi¬ 
nals passed some time in taking evidence about Catherine’s former 
marriage, and then adjourned their court, which never met again. 

§ 19. The king at once showed the real cause of his proceedings 
by going on a progress, and taking with him, in royal state, one of 
his queen’s maids of honor, the beautiful Anne Boleyn, who had re¬ 
mained at the French court when his sister Mary had 

a ^ - p ' 311 ‘ quitted it, a but had recently returned, and had been 
placed by her uncle, the Duke of Norfolk, in the royal household. 
Here she was courted by Lord Henry Percy, and would have mar¬ 
ried him, but unhappily she attracted the notice of the king, and 
by his order Wolsey (in whose household Lord Henry was) broke 
off the match. Henry now shamelessly declared himself her lover, 
and with as little principle she listened to him, to her own des¬ 
truction. No doubt her gay, frivolous maimers suited him far better 
than the quiet demeanor of his wife, who, besides being older than 
himself, suffered from ill-health, and could no longer take a part 
in the riotous pageants and long journeys in which he delighted. 

§ 20. At this crisis, when it was seen that the Pope dared not 
grant a divorce, Thomas Cranmer, a member of Jesus College, 
Cambridge, suggested that the universities should be applied to 


i She had sufficient ground for doing so. Wolsey was well known as unfriendly, and 
had procured the commission under which they acted; and Campeius was Bishop of Salis 
bury. He was deprived of the see when Henry finally quarrelled with the Pope. 


Chapter EL] THE TUDORS. 317 

Wolsey’s Humiliation, Treatment, and Death. His Possessions Seized. 

to answer the question, “Do the laws of God allow a man to marry 
his brother’s widow ? ” This entirely suited Henry’s humor. Cran- 
mer was summoned to court, and employed with others, both 
lawyers and divines, to write in favor of the divorce; and a secret 
agent was sent out to the different foreign universities. Henry 
anticipated their decision hi his favor; Wolsey was therefore no 
longer wanted to conduct “ the king’s matter,” as it was called, and 
his fall was even more sudden than his rise. 

§ 21. Wolsey opened the Court of Chancery with even more than 
his usual pomp at the beginning of Michaelmas term, 1529. On 
the same day the king’s attorney preferred an indictment against 
him, charging him with receiving bulls from Rome, an offence 
against a statute of the time of Richard the Second, for which he 
was liable to forfeiture of goods and imprisonment. Though it 
was notorious that what he had done was by the king’s direct com¬ 
mand, judgment was given against him, the great seal was taken 
from him, and he was sent to reside in comparative poverty at Esher. 
His pride at once sank to the most abject humiliation, and he seem¬ 
ed likely to die of grief, when Henry condescended to send his 
own physician to him, and held out a hope of restoring him to favor. 
This was a cruel deception. He was soon ordered to repair to his 
see, for, among other dignitaries, he held the archbishopric of York; 
but it was not long after he had reached it when he was arrested, 
whilst at dinner, on a charge of high treason, Lord Henry Percy 
(now become Earl of Northumberland), whom he had a § 19 p m 
so cruelly injured, a being directed to seize him. 

§ 22. Wolsey was soon put into the hands of the lieutenant of 
the Tower, who brought him towards London; but he died at 
Leicester Abbey, on the way, of grief and fear, exclaiming with his 
last breath, “ Had I served God as faithfully as I have served the 
king, He would not in mine old age have abandoned me to my 
enemies.” All his possessions, including his projected colleges, 
fell into the king’s hands, who also extorted £120,000 from the 
clergy for submitting to his legatine power, though they would 
have been treated as traitors had they attempted to resist it. Wol¬ 
sey was the last great churchman of the Roman school, and very 
soon after his death the papal power in England was swept away. 

§ 23. Several years before this event a movement had arisen in 
Germany which rejected not merely the supremacy, but many of 
the doctrines of the Roman church. Its chief originator was Mar- 


318 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 


[Book VL 


Luther and his Doctrines. Henry Repudiates the Pope. 

tin Lutlier, a Saxon monk and an eloquent preacher, whose opinions 
were widely received and embraced in his own country. Like 
Wickliffe, he taught that the Bible was the only true rule of faith, 

doctrine, and practice. R And it was he who first pro- 
a § 4, p. 229. 1 1 

jected into society with power the idea that every 

man has the right to exercise his private judgment in religious 
matters, independent of princes, pontiffs, or hierarchies. But 
Henry, assisted by Sir Thomas More, wrote a book against the 
German Reformers, which was so welcome to the Pope (Leo the 
Tenth) that he bestowed on the king the title of Defender of the 
Faith, which is still borne by the British sovereigns, but not in 
the sense in which it was originally conferred. The difficulties 
that he experienced with regard to his divorce, however, brought 
him round to one of Luther’s prominent tenets, and he resolved 
to cast off all subjection to Rome. He also overthrew the monas¬ 
teries, and reduced the church, as an establishment, to an absolute 
dependence on the State; but he did not, like Luther, quarrel 
with the doctrine of Rome. The changes in that direction were 
introduced from abroad, in the days of his successor. Henry’s 
only quarrel was with the supremacy of the Pope and the wealth 
of the church, and he dealt blows to each from which neither 
has ever recovered. 

§ 24. Wolsey was succeeded as chancellor by Sir Thomas More, 
an eminent lawyer, for whom Henry professed great regard, but he 
did not long retain the office, for he was too honest to lend himself 
to every changing fancy of his master. In the mean time Anne 
Boleyn’s father had been created a peer, and Cranmer, the king’s 
supple tool, resided in his house, diligently employed in advocat¬ 
ing the divorce which was to make Anne a queen and himself 
Archbishop of Canterbury. Opinions in its favor were obtained 
from the two English universities (Oxford and Cambridge) and 
from several foreign ones, by threats in the one case and by bribes 
in the other. Cranmer was then sent to Rome, and offered to 
maintain an argument on them witli all comers; but this was 
civilly declined. Pie then went to Germany, where he remained 
awhile in company with the adherents of Luther, and received 
from them doctrines which he dared not impart to Henry, but 
which he successfully introduced in the time of his successor. 

§ 25. Henry had by this time learnt that the Pope would not 
grant the divorce, and he resolved to settle the matter without. 


THE TUDORS. 


319 


ClIAPTKR II. I 


The King marries Anne Boleyn. Cranmcr’s infamous Declaration. 

He therefore laid the opinions of the universities before the parlia¬ 
ment [a.d. 1331], encouraged the writing of books in which the 
papal power was questioned, and threatened the withdrawal of 
certain customary payments to Rome. Next he created his favor¬ 
ite a marchioness, and took her with him to visit the French king, 
who received her as a queen. Soon afterward he married her; 
but this important step was taken so secretly, as something to be 
ashamed of, that its date is not accurately known. The priest 
who performed the ceremony (Rowland Lee) was made an arch¬ 
bishop and was otherwise rewarded. 

§ 26. Anne Boleyn had now attained the high position for which 
she had so long striven; but there was one more humiliation to be 
inflicted on her royal mistress, and it was not long delayed. The 
see of Canterbury was vacant. It was given to Anne’s zealous 
champion, Cranmer, whose first public act was to pronounce 
Catherine’s marriage invalid and Anne’s marriage good. Cathe¬ 
rine was removed, almost by force, from Ampthill, and sent to 
reside at a secluded seat in Huntingdonshire, called Kimbolton, 
with only a few attendants, who were forbidden to style her 
queen—only Princess Dowager of Wales, as widow a§ ^ p 3Q5 
to Prince Arthur,* 1 her first and lawful husband. 

There she died in less than three years, and Anne survived her but 
' a few months. 

§ 27. Henry’s conduct in this matter of his divorce was vehe¬ 
mently condemned by many, but especially by John Fisher, Bishop 
of Rochester, and by the various orders of friars, who had a liberal 
patron in Queen Catherine. One of them, named Peto, preach¬ 
ing before the king at Greenwich, after the second marriage was 
known, boldly likened Henry to Ahab, and prophesied a like fate 
for him: and a nun at Canterbury, Elizabeth Barton, who was 
known as the Holy Maid of Kent, professed to have visions which 
threatened him with dethronement and death unless he took back 
his lawful wife. Henry met this opposition by procuring an act 
of parliament which made it treason to refuse to swear that his 
second marriage was good; and then he put to death the maid 
and several monks who were said to be associated with her. Peto 
was fortunate enough to escape to the Continent. 

^ 28. Four days after Cranmer’s declaration of the queen’s degra¬ 
dation, Anne was crowned with great pomp [June 1, 1533], and 
three months afterward she gave birth, not to the greatly desired 


320 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book VI. 

Anne Boleyn Beheaded. Jane Seymour Queen. The King Head of the Church. 

son, but to a daughter, who was afterwards Queen Elizabeth. 
From this time her favor with the fickle king began to decline, 
and very soon a fair maid of honor, named Jane Seymour, sup¬ 
planted her in his affections, as she had done Catherine. But 
Anne’s fate was much more promptly decided. Something in her 
manner at a pageant at Greenwich roused the jealousy of Henry, 
and she was hurried to the Tower, tried, with her brother and four 
other courtiers, on charges almost too horrible to be true, and be¬ 
headed on the 19th of May, 1536. The king was out hunting on 
the day of the beheading, and was informed of the act by a pre¬ 
concerted signal—the firing of the Tower gun. It gave him joy; 
and the next day he rode into Wiltshire and married Jane Sey¬ 
mour, Anne’s maid of honor, who a little more than a month 
later appeared as queen. By this union Henry’s wishes were 
gratified, as Jane brought him a son, and though she died in a 
week after, her brothers rose to power from her brief queenship, 
and one of them, Edward, who was created Earl of Hertford, be¬ 
came the Protector of the kingdom. 

§ 29. Whilst these domestic affairs were freely canvassed by people 
of every station, steps were taken by the king to make the breach 
with Rome irreparable. Every kind of dependence on the Pope 
w r as formally renounced by act of parliament, and the king was 
declared to be the Head of the Church. In that capacity he 
appointed a layman, Thomas Cromwell, “ Lord Vicegerent in mat¬ 
ters ecclesiastical,” or Vicar-General, who superseded the bishops 
in many of their functions, and controlled the exercise of the 
rest. This, however, was but the beginning of the change that 
was contemplated, and was carried out. 

§ 80. All over the country monastic establishments—some large, 
some small, but possessing among them a vast amount of property— 
were then scattered. Many of them were anything else than 
religious establishments in the best sense of the word, and did not 
deserve existence. The wealth of some was used for vicious and 
unholy purposes, while that of others was properly managed. 
The king determined to seize all this property, confounding bad 
and good together, and he had an instrument ready to his hand in 
his new lord vicegerent. Cromwell was the son of a blacksmith 
at Putney, and as a trader and a soldier had visited France, Ger¬ 
many, and Italy, and had shared in the plunder of Rome when 
sacked by the German imperialists long before. Afterwards he 


THE TUDORS. 


321 


Chapter II.] 


Vicar-General worthy of the Kir g. Religious Houses Suppressed. 

was in Wolsey’s household, and had the rare merit of not deserting 
him in his adversity. Next he entered the royal service, and soon 
showed himself so bold and unscrupulous that he was judged to 
be a tit agent to carry out any scheme which the rapacity or the 
anger of the king might suggest. Accordingly he was directed to 
undertake a visitation of the monasteries, which he carried out, 
either in person or by his deputies, in the year 1535. 

§ 31. Cromwell and his deputies, knowing well what was re¬ 
quired, soon presented a series of reports to the king, accusing the 
monastics in general of every imaginable crime, and the result 
was that, without any further inquiry, or hearing any of them in 
their own defence, the parliament passed an act suppressing all the 
monasteries that had an income of less than £200 per year, and 
giving all their property to the king. The heads of the houses 
received small pensions, but the rest had only a trifle for their pre¬ 
sent wants, and were told that they were no longer bound by their 
vows, and must work for their living. “ Go spin, jades; go spin,” 
was the recorded exhortation to some aged nuns. 

§ 32. Nearly four hundred religious houses were thus swept 
away but the sum brought into the royal treasury was not so large 
as had been expected, and it was then resolved to suppress all the 
rest. The monks, however, whatever their shortcomings may have 
been, seem to have been highly regarded by the people, who mur¬ 
mured loudly at what had been already done; it was therefore 
determined to proceed differently with the “noble great monaste¬ 
ries,” such as Canterbury, Westminster, St. Alban’s, and Malmes¬ 
bury. The heads of these houses were assailed with both promises 
and threats, and many were thus induced to surrender their abbeys 
and priories. Existing vacancies were filled up with men who had 
already promised to obey the king’s directions; and the most odious 
charges were brought forward against those who stood firm. 

§ 33 These found hosts of partisans, and insurrections bio ve 
out, especially in Lincolnshire and Yorkshire, having for object 
the restitution of the monasteries, the suppression of “ heresy, and 
the removal of “base-born councillors,” by which Cromwell and 
Cranmer a were specially aimed at. But, with worldly a ^ p 319 
wisdom, these notable men had advised a liberal dis- 
tribution of the abbey lands among the nobility and gentry, and 
the Duke of Norfolk, uncle of Jane Seymour, 15 who b§28 p 319# 
had his full share, though as fierce an opponent of 
14* 


322 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 


[Book VI. 


Suppression of Monasteries. Tne Spoils. Cruelty and Plunder. 

“heresy” as any of them, marched against the Yorkshiremen, who 
called their insurrectionary journey the Pilgrimage of Grace, and 
earned Henry’s approbation by his merciless severity in putting 
down the popular movement. 

§ 34. This abortive insurrection was speedily followed, in 1539, 
by the suppression of the whole of the monasteries yet remain¬ 
ing; 1 and the king avoided the necessity of pensioning many 
of their 'members by executing them as traitors. Their treason 
consisted in denying that a layman could be the Head of the 

„ Church, a a treason for which Bishop Fisher and Sir 

a § 29, p. 320. 

Thomas More, as well as several priors and monks of 
Carthusian houses, 2 had already [1535], been judicially murdered. 
Among the sufferers were the abbots of the great houses of Bar¬ 
lings, Colchester, Fountains, Glastonbury, Jervaux, Reading, Saw- 
ley, Whalley, and Woburn, and the prior of Bridlington; whilst 
others who had compliantly rendered up their charges were made 
bishops of the six new sees, to the foundation of which a small 
part of the plunder was devoted. Another part went to build 
fortresses along the coast, for which the ruined churches furnished 
some of the materials ; 3 and a trifle was bestowed on the universi¬ 
ties, consisting mainly of what had been seized some years before 
by Wolsey. 

§ 35. These public works, however, did not represent a tithe of 
the spoil. The king justly bears all the odium, but he did not 
get so large a share of the profit as might be expected. Indis¬ 
putable evidence remains that, by bribes to Cromwell and his asso¬ 
ciates, much of the land was sold at merely nominal prices, and 
Henry’s prodigal generosity induced him to grant whatever was 

i The whole number, exclusive of the small houses dissolved in 1536, is reckoned at 
615 ; but many of these had already come into the'king’s hands by so-called voluntary 
surrender. Twenty-nine of these were styled mitred abbeys or priories, and their 
heads had seats in parliament equally with the bishops. 

- Their chief house was in London, and the greater part of its members were of one 
mind in upholding the cause of the queen, and refusing to acknowledge the roval 
supremacy. The prior, John Houghton, was first executed, but this did not shake the 
firmness ot the rest. Thiee of the monks were then hanged, and soon afterward nine 
more in a body. A few still remained, who were suffered to die of sickness in Newgate. 

A fresh prior was appointed, who surrendered the house, which was given to the Duke 
of Norfolk, who was the uncle of the new queen. 

a As one instance, large quantities of the stones from St. Augustine’s Abbey, Canter¬ 
bury, were sent over to repair the fortifications of Calais; and in pulling down Hurst 
Castle, recently, it was found that many parts were almost entirely composed of carved 
stones from Beaulieu Abbey, in its neighborhood. 


THE TUDORS. 


323 


Chapter II.] 

Destruction of Sacred Property. 


Jewelry seized. A Solemn Farce. 


asked for by his hungry courtiers. Thus a very large part of the 
property of the country at once changed hands, and its new hold¬ 
ers, “ making haste to grow rich,” committed the most pitiable 
havoc, many traces of which are to be seen even at the present 
day. “ These men ruthlessly destroyed many of the noblest edi¬ 
fices of the country merely to sell their materials, desecrated 
churches or bartered them like merchandise, wantonly or igno¬ 
rantly ruined valuable libraries, threw down tombs and obliterated 
monumental inscriptions, and cast out the bones of the great and 
good that they might gain a little further profit from their leaden 
coffins and their sepulchral brasses.” By such means many of them 
acquired vast estates, and others were ennobled. But in very 
few instances indeed had their prosperity any long continuance, 
and several of them perished on the scaffold. 

§ 86. But beside the landed property of the monasteries, which 
Henry was obliged to share with his assistants, there was a rich 
store of jewels and gold that, petty plunder by his agents ex¬ 
cepted, came exclusively into his own hands. These were the 
accumulated offerings of pilgrims for ages past to the many 
shrines of saints that the country then contained, and which the 
most lawless robber had never ventured to touch. Foremost 
among these was the shrine of St. Thomas (Thomas a § ^ p m 
a Becket a ) of Canterbury, which yielded a vast sum 
to the royal treasury, gathered from superstitious devotees who 
worshipped at it. Not content with appropriating this, Henry 
went through the solemn farce of having a man who had been 
dead nearly four hundred years condemned as a traitor. He 
ordered the shrine to be demolished, directed that the saint 
should only be styled Bishop Becket for the future, and that his 
image, wherever met with, should be defaced. Other shrines were 
equally plundered, but in their case it was not thought necessary 
to attaint any of their tenants. In the exercise of what was pro¬ 
fessed to be pious zeal against idolatry, innumerable relics and 
images were destroyed. But Henry was a believer in the efficacy of 
such things himself, and would probably not have quarrelled with 
them had they not been cased in gold and glittering with gems. 

§ 37. The king, as has been mentioned, b had no b § %% p 317 _ 
sympathy with the opinions of Luther and his friends; 
and knowing that he had deeply offended the great body of Ins 
people by his plunder of the monasteries, he endeavored to regain 


324 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 


IBook VI. 


t § 29, p. 320. 


t § 26, p. 319. 


The King not a Protestant. He persecutes. Marries a Protestant Princess. 

tlieir good opinion by mercilessly persecuting the “ sacramentarian 
heretics,” as the disbelievers in transubstantiation were called. 
At the same time he was equally severe on all who refused his 
title of Head of the Church,® and he burnt the one 
and hanged the others in company. 

§ 88. The king seemed more anxious, after his quarrel with the 
Pope, than before, to show that he held firmly the leading doc¬ 
trines of the Church of Rome; and so it was that in 1589 he pro¬ 
cured the passing of an act by parliament, since known as the 
Statute of the Six Articles, which was especially directed against 
the holders of the “new opinions,” such as Luther and others 
taught. Cranmer was known to be one of these, but as his timid 
nature prevented his bringing his views prominently forward, and 
as he had secured a peculiar degree of favor with Henry by his 
services in the divorce of Catherine of Arragon, b they 
were passed over in him, whilst bolder men who 
avowed them were burnt. But the reproach of moral cowardice 
does not attach to Cranmer alone, for the imperious Henry bore 
down the very idea of opposition in all immediately about him. 
In the time of his successor, Bishops Bonner, Gardiner, and Tun- 
stall (to mention only a few noted names) showed a firmness but 
little to be expected by any one who had seen how readily they 
bent under Henry’s iron hand, and joined with alacrity in his 
attack on Rome, the plunder of the monasteries, the substitution 
of Cromwell for the whole bench of bishops, 6 and 
the murder of duke and countess, bishop and baron. 
In fact, under Henry few public men had the honesty and courage 
to act up to their opinions; and the few who did paid for it with 
tlieir lives. 

§ 89. In spite of his dislike of all opposers of the doctrines of 
the Italian church, political considerations induced Henry to think 
of allying himself with the Protestant princes in Gel-many who 
held the so-called heretical opinions, and, unfortunately for him¬ 
self, Cromwell (now created Earl of Essex) induced him to marry 
Anne of Cleves, whose brother, the Duke of Cleves, was a person 
of some consideration among those princes. When she came to 
England, at the close of 1539, she did not suit Henry’s taste. The 
vulgar brute coarsely styled her “ a Flanders mare,” and though he 
married her [January 5, 1540], it was with an ill-will which he 
afterwards pleaded as a reason for setting the marriage aside. At 


> § 29, p. 320. 


Chapter II.] THE TUDORS. 325 

Fall of the Yicar-general. The Pope threatens Excommunication. 

first he only lamented his “ evil fortune,” but it was soon seen that 
he blamed Cromwell for it, and the fate of the great “Hammer 
of the Monks,” as he was fitly called, was decided, as he had 
nothing but the royal favor to rely on. 

§ 40. No man of his time was so unpopular as Thomas Crom¬ 
well. He was regarded as a heretic in religion; and even those 
who had profited by him in the partition of the abbey a § 33 p m 
lands a hated him as “base bom.” Of this mind was 
the Duke of Norfolk, who suddenly accifced him of treason 
whilst sitting at the council table [June 10, 1540], and he was 
hurried to the Tower. Under his direction several persons had 
been condemned unheard, by being attainted without trial, 1 and 
now he experienced the same measure of injustice himself. He 
was declared guilty of treason and heresy, and condemned to die. 
But he was suffered to live a month longer, not in consequence of 
his urgent entreaties for life (“ Most gracious Prince, I cry for 
mercy, mercy, mercy! ” he wrote in vain), but in order that he 
might draw up a statement containing such an account of the 
marriage as would enable Henry to divorce his fourth wife. This 
iniquity was soon effected [July 26, 1540] by the compliant Cran- 
mer, b and the king married the beautiful Catherine 316 

Howard, niece of the Duke of Norfolk, and a 
thorough papist, two days afterward (the very day that his 
“ miserable prisoner and poor slave,” Cromwell, was beheaded), 
only to execute her also in turn. 

§ 41. Even before the total suppression of the monasteries the 
Pope (Paul the Third) had threatened Henry with excommunica¬ 
tion, and in 1538 he issued the bull, and endeavored to induce the 
emperor and the King of France to unite in an invasion of Eng¬ 
land. The alarm that this excited gave occasion to some of the 
most cruel murders that disgrace Henry’s reign. He had a kins¬ 
man named Reginald Pole, who became a priest, and who offended 
him by writing a reply to one of the publications in favor of the 
divorce. He was abroad at the time, and, neglecting to return 
when summoned, was attainted. This was only the usual course 
of government under Henry; but when the papal bull was issued, 
as Reginald was beyond his reach, he seized on his brothers, and 

1 Cromwell is often said to have devised this perversion of justice, but such is not 
the fact. He only revived what Henry the Seventh had often practised. 


326 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 


[Book VI. 


The Order of St. John suppressed. Preparations for Invasion. 

even his aged mother, and had them all executed on the charge 
of corresponding with him. The mother, who was Countess of 
Salisbury, had been the governess of Henry’s daughter Mary, a and 
was the sister of the Earl of Warwick, who had 


1 § 1C, p. 315. 


b § °4 p °oi k een murdered to allay the scruples of Ferdinand, b 
the father of Catherine of Arragon. 

§ 42. After the suppression of the monasteries there still re- 
° § p 205 maine( * *he O f( ler of the Knights of St. John of Jeru¬ 
salem, 0 find as its members were trained soldiers, it 
was seen that they might be dangerous enemies in case that any 
attempt was made to put the bull in execution. The order was 
therefore dissolved by act of parliament [a.d. 1540] and its pos¬ 
sessions seized, on the plea that some of its members upheld the 
Pope’s power and slandered the king and his councillors. Some 
of them were seized and executed as traitors, and their grand 
prior, Sir William Weston, fell down dead in the gateway when 
leaving their stately house of Clerkenwell. 

§ 43. The great body of the people were deeply dissatified with 
Henry’s proceedings, but the threat of invasion caused them to 
rally to his standard, nor was he wanting in activity on the occa¬ 
sion. He visited the sea-coasts, superintending the erection of 
castles, some of which still stand; 1 and he turned such of the 
monastic churches as yet remained in his hands into storehouses, 
laying up gunpowder in one, wine in another, and salt fish in a 
third. Then, imitating the policy of his father, d he 
journeyed into the north [Aug., 1541] taking his new 
queen with him, where all who had favored the Pilgrimage 
« § 33 p 321 of Grace e or other Usings met him with rich peace- 
offerings. But his contentment was of short dura¬ 
tion. His queen, whom he declared he loved most dearly, was 
accused by the obsequious Archbishop Cranmer of unchastity, 
and was hurried to the block [Feb. 13, 1542], and the royal savage 
was for the fifth time a widower. The unhappy young creature be¬ 
ing the niece of the Duke of Norfolk, her marriage was looked upon 
as a sign that the breach with Rome might after all be healed. 

§ 44. Submission to the Pope was not Henry’s intention. The 
idea of being his own pope was too much to his taste to be aban- 


i § 10, p. 299. 


1 Among them may be mentioned Walmer Castle, near Deal; Sonthsea Castle, in 
Hampshire; and St. Mawes, in Cornwall. 


Chapter II.] THE TUDORS. 327 

Henry assumes tlie Pontificate. Another Protestant Queen. Persecutions. 

doned, and regarding himself as charged with the spiritual 
instruction of his people, he set about supplying it. He had re¬ 
ceived as learned an education as most of lhs bishops, and he 
conceived Mmself quite able to superintend their labors. He 
therefore directed them to draw up for Ms consideration a series 
of articles “ to establish Christian quietness and miity,” and when 
he had corrected them with his own hand they were published. 
Next he allowed Cranmer to translate the Bible, but afterwards, 
seeming to repent what he had done, he prohibited the reading of 
it in public. With the strange idea of supplying its place he 
directed the bishops to draw up a book which should give to the 
“unlearned sort” just as much religious knowledge as he con¬ 
sidered proper for them. The book was published in 1586, 
and was styled “ The Institution of a Christian Man,” or more 
shortly, The Bishops’ Book. This, however, did not suit him long, 
and in 1543 it was superseded by “The Necessary Doctrine and 
Erudition for any Christian Man,” shortly called The King’s Book, 
which inculcated many Roman dogmas that had been left open 
questions by the “ Institution.” 

§ 45. This seemed an unfavorable circumstance for those who 
had imbibed the “ new opinions; ” but, fortunately for them, 
Henry’s sixth choice of a wife [1543] was from among their num¬ 
ber. This was the widow of Lord Latimer, but who is better 
known by her maiden name of Catherine Parr. She was more 
successful than any of his other wives hi retaining Ms favor, for 
he now suffered much from illness, and she sedulously attended 
to him. Hence, though all who dared to question Ms headship 
of the church died the death of traitors, her watchful care pre¬ 
vented any harm befalling the “heretics,” if they did not declare 
their opinions too loudly. If they did, Gardiner, or Rich, or 
Wriothesley—supple tools of Henry—brought the matter before the 
king, and then no hope of mercy remained for them. One of 
these imprudent people was Anne Askew, a lady connected with 
the court, who, previous to her martyrdom, was racked in the 
Tower, in the hope of,making her disclose something unfavor¬ 
able to the queen; but her constancy was proof against the torture. 

§ 46. The end of Henry’s eventful reign was now approaching. 
The threatened invasion a never took place, though a a ^ p m 
French fleet hovered on the English coast, and the 
Scots were induced to ravage the northern countries. On the con- 


328 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book VI. 

A Marriage Treaty. A Subservient Parliament. The King’s Ingratitude. 

trary, Henry, though now growing old and unwieldy, again 
crossed the seas, and captured Boulogne in the year 1544, when 
a great number of Scottish nobles fell into his hands, who were 
set free on condition of advocating a marriage between- his son 
and Mary Stuart, the infant daughter of his nephew, 
B § 5, p- 310. j ames Yiith.* The treaty was agreed to, though 
never carried out; and Scotland was invaded, but without produ¬ 
cing the desired effect. Henry, however, continued his interference 
with the affairs of the country, and paid a band of assassins, who 
murdered Cardinal Beaton [1546], a man of bad character, but an 
able statesman, who refused to fall in with his views. 

§ 47. Henry’s parliaments had ever been most discreditably 
subservient to him; the fact being, that a large number of the Com¬ 
mons were his servants, or named by him. Three times did they 
relieve him from his debts. Three separate times did they alter 
the succession to the throne, and make it treason to cast a doubt 
on any of his marriages beyond the first. They allowed his pro¬ 
clamations to have the force of law; and finally they surrendered 
the last shadow of independence by permitting him actually to 
dispose of his dominions by will, as freely as any gentleman might 
dispose of a private estate. He acted upon this, and named his 
son as his successor, but also enabled his two daughters, Mary b and 
Elizabeth, 0 to inherit the crown; though, by his own 


b §16, p. 315. 
« §28. p. 319. 


wish, they had both been declared illegitimate, and 
the mother of one had died of a broken heart, and 
the other had perished on the scaffold. 

§ 48. But the latest act of his life was one of the worst. No 
one had rendered him greater services than the Duke of Norfolk, 
yet he too was marked out for destruction. Henry lay on liis 
death-bed when it was suggested to him that Norfolk (or at all 
events his son, the Earl of Surrey) had a design on the crown. The 
only evidence for this improbable fancy was, that Norfolk had 
used a coat of arms, as his ancestors had done (for he was of royal 
descent), which the king thought should only be used by himself; 
and Surrey was asserted to have said that die or his father ought to 
have the guardianship of the prince if he should come to the 
throne whilst still a minor. This post of guardian was coveted 
by the Earl of Hertford (the prince’s uncle), and it is believed that 
he roused Henry’s jealous fury against the Howards. The young 
earl was tried for treason. Of course he was convicted and be- 


THE TUDORS. 


329 * 


CnAPTElt II.] 

Character of Henry the Eighth. 


His wicked Reign. 


headed. His father was attainted without trial, and the order was 
given for his execution. But on the following night [January 26, 
1547] Henry himself sunk into a state of stupor, and early in the 
morning he dwu, at the age of exactly fifty-six years, and in the 
thirty-eighth year of his reign. The warrant for the execution was 
thus rendered invalid, and the life of the duke was saved, but he 
remained a prisoner in the Tower during the whole of the next 
reign. 

§ 49. Henry, like his father, when his end drew near, relin¬ 
quished a small part of his spoil and devoted it to purposes of 
charity. Thus he bestowed on the citizens of London the original 
endowment of St. Bartholomew’s, St. Thomas’, and Bethlehem 
Hospitals,—all monastic property, that had cost him nothing. In¬ 
deed, through life his liberality was of this cheap description. He 
is often said to have paid for the education of his kinsman Regi¬ 
nald Pole; but the fact is, that he compelled the convent of St. 
Frideswide, at Oxford, to support him whilst a student. He por¬ 
tioned his niece, Margaret Douglas, from the spoils of a ^ ^ 

the Pilgrimage of G-race, a and he endowed the di- b ^ ^ 
vorced Anne of Cleves b with a part of the ill-gotten 
gains of Cromwell. No considerations of justice, honor, or charity 
seem ever to have had power to turn him away from any course 
that he proposed to himself; and the utter subserviency of his 
parliaments and his judges enabled him to become as absolute and 
as cruel a tyrant as ever afflicted a nation. He was a human mon¬ 
ster of vulgar type, and a disgrace to his species. From his acces¬ 
sion to his death, many thousands of men and women were destroyed 
hi England to appease his unholy wrath or vile lusts. 


CHAPTER HI. 

reign of Edward the Sixth, [a.d. 1547 to 1553.] 

§ 1. When King Henry the Eighth’s will was opened it was 
found that he had appointed sixteen persons as his executors, who 
were to have the government of the young prince Edward, his only 
surviving son, and then in the tenth year of his age, until he at¬ 
tained his eighteenth year, and were to be assisted by twelve others • 



S30 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book YI. 

The Regency. Strife for Supremacy. * How settled. 

the whole body forming the privy council. Men of very opposite 
opinions were named among the executors; and as no direction was 
given that any one should have precedence of the others, their very 
first meeting, which was within a few hours of Henry’s death, wit¬ 
nessed a contest for superiority among them. It ended in the 
choice of the Earl of Hertford, who was the young king’s uncle, a 
and professed himself a favorer of the “ new opinions.” 

48, p. u~s. c ] 10 j ce a t once determined the course of events, 

and determined them, no doubt, very differently from what King 
Henry intended. It was on this occasion that the accession of the 
new king was regarded as having taken place at the moment of the 
old monarch’s death, and gave rise to the legal maxim which yet pre¬ 
vails, that “the King never dies.” Edward was not crowned un¬ 
til the 20th of February, 1547 —four days after the funeral ceremo¬ 
nies of the dead king had ended. 

§ 2. That part of the English Reformation which consisted in 
throwing off all dependence on Rome and the suppression of the 
monasteries had been already accomplished by Henry b , 
§ 31, p. 321. nQW mos t important changes in doctrine and ritual 
were to follow. As to religious profession, the executors were 
about equally divided; Cramner and Hertford being what may now 
properly be termed Protestants. The Lord Chancellor Wriothesley 
and Bishop Tunstall were Romanists; and, now that they feared 
Henry no more, prepared to act up to their opinions. Hence it was 
easy to see that the strange committee of government that Henry 
had devised would not long endure. A clause in his will had 
directed that any promises he might have made of conferring 
dignities should be held good, and this provision at least was 
fully carried out. 

§ 3. According to their own representation of what had been 
intended for them, the Chancellor was made Earl of Southampton; 
Lord Lisle, Earl of Warwick; Sir Thomas Seymour, Lord Sudeley; 
the Earl of Essex became Marquis of Northampton; but, as a mat¬ 
ter of course, the most distinguished honors were claimed by the 
Earl of Hertford.® He was created Duke of Somerset, 

§ 28 , p. 31 . rece * ve( j £j ie 0 fg ces 0 f Lord Treasurer and Earl Marshal, 
of which the Duke of Norfolk, who lay in the Tower under sentence 
of death, d had been deprived, and at once began his 
s ’ ’ ' ambitious career by driving the Lord Chancellor from 

the council, and imprisoning him. This point accomplished, 


Chapter III] THE TUDORS. 331 

The Reformation in England. Change in Public Worship. New Service-Book. 

Somerset procured from his boy-nephew letters patent, constituting 
him Protector, and allowing him to act independently of his fellow- 
executors. 

§ 4. Thus, in less than two months after Henry’s death, all his 
arrangements were overthrown, and a career of reformation entered 
on that he would have repressed with the axe and the fagot. 
Somerset’s resolution supplied the want of that quality in Cranmer; 
and, though Tunstall, Gardiner, Bonner, and others protested, the 
work of defacing the churches under the plea of removing images 
and crucifixes was vigorously carried on. The answer to remon¬ 
strances was to send those who made them to prison. Bonner and 
Gardiner were deprived of their sees, when Ridley, and Poynet, two 
of the Reformers, were appointed at stipends of £1,000 a year each; 
a very profitable arrangement for the government, but showing that 
no ecclesiastical person was safe if he presumed to have an opinion 
of his own. Tunstall’s see of Durham was afterwards suppressed 
entirely, and all its property bestowed on Dudley, Duke of North¬ 
umberland. 

§ 5. Somerset, in the mean time, had invaded Scotland, gained 
the battle of Pinkie, and burnt Edinburgh [September, 1547], his 
object being to compel the Scots to carry out the mar- a ^ ^ ^ ^ 
riage treaty. a The old idea of alliance with France, 
however, prevailed; and even the few among the Scots who favor¬ 
ed the scheme, declared that though they liked the match, they 
hated the manner of wooing. To prevent its renewal, the child- 
queen was sent into France, and educated there. 

§ 6. When Somerset returned to England the parliament met, 
and it was seen that they were favorable to extensive changes in 
religious matters. Accordingly a new communion office was pre¬ 
pared, and several of the foreign reformers were invited to Eng¬ 
land, to give their assistance in further alterations. These men 
were more spiritual-minded than most of their brother Protestants 
in England, and held views of religion as a bond between man and 
his Maker more exalted and scriptural than those of a majority of 
the British reformers. The new Service-book, published in 1548, 
was therefore very unsatisfactory to them, for in preparing it an 
attempt was made to please both Romanists and Protestants. The 
consequence was that it offended both. It was therefore with¬ 
drawn, and what is known as the Second Book of Edward the 
Sixth was put forth. That, though purged of many tilings ob- 


. § 4, p. 56. 


b § 4, p. 229. 


332 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book YI. 

Foreign Reformers in England. Families of Henry's Wives. 

noxious to the radical reformers, allowed, and even prescribed, so 
much of the Romish ritual in vestments and ceremonials having 
doctrinal significance, that it too was offensive to the most ad¬ 
vanced reformers. Rut they were not strong enough to cause 
another change, and the book, not unlike in general arrangement 
the Book of Common Prayer now used in the Anglican Church, 
remained as a manual for public worship a long time. 

§ 7. The favor of the government, however, for the foreign 
reformers continued unabated, and they were encouraged to settle 
in congregations in England, several of the disused churches being 
allotted to them. One party was placed with their looms amid 
the ruins of the famous abbey of Glastonbury. a Among 
these foreigners there was a great variety of doctrine, 
but they agreed in the essential proposition of Wickliffe and 
Luther, that the Bible was the primary authority for faith and 
practice. 1 * There was one limit that they might not 
pass. If they held the Anabaptist tenets, 1 which were 
supposed to be of dangerous political consequence, they had only 
the same choice—abjuration or burning—that Henry himself 
would have given them. Archbishop Cranmer and others, who 
themselves afterwards suffered, burnt both men and women on this 
account, and conceived that they did God good service. 

§ 8. Four out of Henry’s numerous marriages had been with his 
subjects, and thus certain families from which his wives had been 
taken had been led to consider themselves something different from 
the rest of his people. This was especially the case with the Sey¬ 
mours, a Wiltshire family; and Edward and Thomas, two active 
men, had fully profited by the fortunate chance of their sister Jane 
having been a queen for a year. 6 They enjoyed high 
distinction in the court of their brother-in-law, and 
when he died Edward, as we have seen, d became Duke of Somer¬ 
set and Lord Protector; ® whilst Thomas, who was 
made Lord Admiral, married Henry’s widow, Cathe¬ 
rine Parr/ She died within a year afterward; but 
even before her death her husband had commenced a 
correspondence with the young Princess Elizabeth, s 
and his brother was informed that he harbored designs against the 
State. 

i The Anabaptists held that the baptism of adults only was efficacious, and denied 
the validity of infant baptism. 


= § 28, p. 319. 


o § 3, p. 330. 
e § 3, p. 330. 
t § 45, p. 327. 
e § 47, p. 328. 


Chapter III.] THE TUDORS. 833 

Fate of Admiral Seymour. The People and the Monks. Somerset’s Hypocrisy. 

§ 9. What the designs of Admiral Seymour were is not very 
clearly known, 1 as, in the usual Tudor fashion, he was attainted 
without trial, and executed [a.d. 1549], the warrant being, perhaps 
unavoidably, signed by Somerset; but the fact greatly added to 
the unpopularity that he was daily incurring among all classes. 
He offended his colleagues by his conduct in seeking extravagant 
grants from the crown, and he enraged the great bulk of the 
people, who in general had still a deep reverence for holy things, 
by pulling down even churches to furnish materials for a stately 
palace that he was building in London. He had a rival in the 
Earl of Warwick, who carefully watched all his imprudences and 
speedily brought him to destruction. 

§ 10. The sale or gift of the abbey lands, a however much it might 
enrich the receivers, and however much it might ap- ^ re) 
pear to forward the Reformation,—for, as Bishop 
Latimer said in one of his sermons, “thousands became Gospellers 
for them,”—was the cause of deep distress to the people at large, 
particularly in the country districts. The monks had been liberal 
landlords and charitable neighbors, and never suffered the poor 
around them to want for food. But with new lords of the soil it 
was altogether different. Many of them had been once poor them¬ 
selves, and when the estates came into their hands they thought of 
nothing else than how they might obtain from them the uttermost 
farthing. No more entertainment for all comers; no more daily 
meals at the gate; no more free gifts of a horse, or a cow, or a 
sheep to the poor man who had lost his own by accident or dis¬ 
ease. These things had all passed away with the monks ; and even 
the open commons now began to be enclosed by the new men, on 
the false pretence that they had once been church property. 

§ 11. At last, just when Somerset’s unpopularity was at its 
height, the people began to throw down the enclosures, and he, 
thinking to gain their support as a balance to the ill-will of his 
associates, took their part, and thus bitterly offended the members 
of his council. The insurgents took heart, and appeared in arms 

i He was charged in the bill of attainder not only with intending to marry the prin¬ 
cess, but with coining bad money, and planning to seize and fortify the Scilly Islands 
as a pirate State. But these Tudor bills of attainder cannot be relied on as containing 
one particle of truth. Writers who are worthy of belief say that the quarrel of the 
brothers really arose out of a contest for precedence between their wives. The duchess 
looked upon the dowager queen only as the wife of a baron, and so her inferior; whilst 
the other still claimed royal state. 


334 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 


Violent Insurrections. 


Humiliation of Somerset. 


[Book YL 

Earl of Warwick’s Power. 


5 9, p. 333. 


b § 3, p. 330. 


in various parts of the country, some only aiming at throwing open 
the commons, but others also crying out, “ Kill the gentlemen ! ” 
and others again demanding the restoration of the old service. In 
Devon and Somerset, in Berks, Hants, and Oxford; in Kent, Surrey, 
and Sussex; and from the very gates of London to Norfolk, the 
whole country was in a blaze. Somerset, repenting of the encour¬ 
agement that he had given, with Russell, Warwick,* 
and other holders of abbey lands, set forth to put 
down the commotions, but determined to avenge them on the 
Protector. b By dint of merciless severity they suc¬ 
ceeded in dispersing the assemblages, hung priests 
and monks from the church steeples, and brought a few of the 
prominent men to London for trial. Among them were Humphrey 
Arundell, a veteran soldier from the West, and Robert Ket, a 
wealthy tanner from Norwich, who were speedily executed. 

§ 12. Warwick and his partisans now indulged in loud threats 
against Somerset, who at once fled to Hampton Court, taking the 
young king with him. In a few days Warwick got the king into 
his own hands [Oct. 14, 1549], and sent Somerset to the Tower. 
After a two months’ imprisonment he made his submission, ac¬ 
knowledging everything that his opponents chose to charge him 
with. Then he was released, and readmitted to the council at the 
beginning of 1550. He bore his humiliation with impatience; and 
so suspicious was his conduct, that a charge of endeavoring to 
murder Warwick was got up against him, and he was beheaded on 
the 22d of December, 1552, his royal nephew consigning him to 
c g 9 p m death as quietly as Somerset himself had sacrificed 
his brother Tli omas c awhile before. 1 

§ 13. The Earl of Warwick who had thus thrust himself 
into power was John, the son of that Arthur Dudley who 
had been one of the “ ravening wolves ” of the time of Henry the 
i § 27 p 306 Seventh>d He was an ab le man, and had much distin¬ 
guished himself in the wars of the late king’s reign. 
Whilst only one of the council, he avowed himself a Romanist; 
but now finding the king firmly attached to Cranmer and the Prot¬ 
estants, he professed to become one himself. He deposed and im¬ 
prisoned the Bishops of Durham, Chichester, and Worcester, and 

1 The young king kept a journal, which still exists, and in it he has noted down the 
deaths of both his uncles just as matters of ordinary news, and without a single ex¬ 
pression of natural feeling. 


Chapter III.] THE TUDORS. 335 

Princess Mary at Court. Her Firmness. Poverty of the Government. 

set to work so vehemently to forward the Reformation that the 

Princess Mary a took the alarm, and endeavored to 

x A j. , A ’ . , , a § 16, p. 315. 

escape from the country; but steps were taken to pre¬ 
vent her. She was sent for to the court, and the king undertook 
personally to convince her of her error. It was, however, not likely 
that the reasonings of a boy of fourteen should have much influ¬ 
ence with a woman of more than twice his age, and whose faith 
was endeared to her by her mother’s sufferings b and b ^ 
her own. She told him, as he relates in his journal, ’ P ‘ 
that “her soul was God’s, and her faith she would not change ; ” 
adding (which must have been a severe reproach to the majority 
of his councillors), that “ she w r ould not dissemble her opinion 
with contrary doings.” Conformably with this she refused to re¬ 
ceive the new Service-book, 6 or to hear Ridley, one of c g ^ 
.the most eloquent Protestants, lately made a bishop ; ’ P 

and though her brother’s council imprisoned her chaplains and her 
attendants, she stood firm, and they were obliged to leave her un¬ 
molested, lest they should find themselves involved in a war with 
her kinsman, the Emperor of Germany. 

§ 14. They had, in fact, reason to dread this, as they had been 

signally unsuccessful in their wars with France and with Scotland. 

The Scots had recovered Haddington and other places, and the 

French kept up such a ceaseless attack on Boulogne, d 

11 & d § 46, p. 327. 

that, it was soon discovered to be “ too chargeable,” 

and was surrendered for a small sum of money and a disgraceful 
peace. The parliament had placed at their disposal all that yet 
remained of the movable property of the Church, even to the very 
bells, 1 and they had also seized on the lands of hospitals and alms¬ 
houses ; yet they were hopelessly in debt, and though they issued 
base money and pawned the crown jewels, they could hardly pay 
the garrison of Calais. Never before had England sunk quite so 
low. Warwick, however, having first placed Tunstall e 

° r e § 4 , p . 331. 

in the Tower, enriched himself by procuring a grant 
of the bishopric of Durham, and next he induced the king to make 
him Duke of Northumberland, and to bestow new honors on seve¬ 
ral of the men who had been most active in hunting his uncle 
Somerset to death. 

1 In 1551 commissioners were appointed in every county to carry out this scheme. 
Their instructions direct them to leave but one small bell to summon the people to 
church. 


336 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 


[Book VI. 


Feebleness of the Boy King. Northumberland’s Schemes. Death of the King. 

§ 15. Edward had been something like an invalid from his birth, 
but his father would not recognize this. He wished all his chil¬ 
dren to be learned like himself, and the plan answered well with 
his daughters Mary and Elizabeth ; but the close application that 
was insisted on by Edward’s tutors (Sir John Cheke and Dr. Cox) 
was too much for the feeble frame of the boy, and his head was 
crammed with crude learning to the ruin of his bodily health. He 
was sincerely anxious that Cranmer’s reforms should be carried 
out, and he was filled with boyish indignation against his sister 
Mary for declining to adopt them, though he, her sovereign, had 
condescended to argue the matter with her. On this foundation 
Northumberland formed the daring scheme of bringing the crown 
into his own family. 

§ 16. In the spring of 1553 Edward was much worse than usual, 
and it was evident that he would not live long. Northumberland, 
in the May of that year, married Guilford Dudley, one of his sons, 
to Jane Grey, the daughter of the Duchess of Suffolk, who was 
the daughter of King Henry’s friend Charles Brandon by Mary, 
the Dowager-queen of France. a The Duchess herself 
had been a holder of the “ new opinions ” in the late 
reign, and she had brought up her daughter in them. Being the 
king’s cousin, very beautiful and accomplished, and like-minded in 
religion, Jane was, both before and after her marriage, much in 
favor with Edward, and Northumberland had little difficulty in 
persuading him that there was but one way of avoiding the sub¬ 
version on his death of all that had been done, and that was by 
bestowing his crown on the Duchess of Suffolk, who would decline 
it in favor of Jane. The poor youth was dying at the time, and 
no doubt believed that the counsel was honestly given for the best. 
His other councillors, however, did not think so, and it was only 
at his positive command that they agreed to draw up the letters 
patent which, for the second time in less than seven 
yearn, disposed of the crown as if it had been a private 

estate. 1 * 

§ 17. Even then Edward’s councillors gave only a reluctant 
assent; but the vehemence of Northumberland prevailed, and in an 
unhappy hour for himself as well as the unfortunate Lady Jane, 
the patent was duly authenticated. Edward died at Greenwich a 
fortnight afterward [July 6, 1553]. The event was kept secret for 
four days, until Lady Jane was installed in the Tower as queen 


* § 9, p. 312. 


t § 47, p. 328. 


Chapter III] THE TUDORS. 337 

Lady Jane Grey proclaimed Queen. Energy and Success of the Princess Mary. 

[July 10, 1553], and steps had been taken to seize both Mary and 
Elizabeth, by sending them a summons to attend the sick-bed of 
their brother, although he was already dead. They’were, how¬ 
ever, warned in time, and avoided the snare. Mary was then at 
Kenninghall, in Norfolk. She at once made her claim to the 
crown, and was proclaimed queen in the important city of Nor¬ 
wich, on the 12th of July. Both high and low joined her standard, 
some of the earliest being the crews of two ships that had been 
stationed on the coast to prevent her escape. 

§ 18. When this was known in London, Northumberland set for¬ 
ward with a small force, thinking to capture her ; but he went with 
melancholy forebodings, saying to his companion, an uncle of Lady 
Jane, “The people press to see us, but not one sayeth God speed 
you.” Whilst he held on his way, the council that he had left in 
London, freed from his menaces, began to consider how they could 
withdraw from their illegal enterprise. Whilst they hesitated, 
Ridley, the Bishop of London, preached a violent sermon at Paul’s 
Cross, denouncing Mary as an idolater, and therefore unworthy to 
reign over a Christian people. This appeal was not favorably re¬ 
ceived, and, three days afterward [July 10, 1553], the council pro¬ 
claimed Mary queen, and sent orders to Northumberland at once 
to disarm. He received the order at Cambridge, and at once pro¬ 
claimed Mary, though not directed to do so, throwing up his cap, 
and professing extravagant joy that his own devise had miscarried. 
His yile hypocrisy was too transparent. He was seized the next 
day, together with his sons, and Dr. Sands, who under his direc¬ 
tion had preached in the same style as Ridley, and they were all 
lodged in the Tower. Mary, meanwhile, journeyed by slow stages 
to London, where she was joined by her sister Elizabeth and the 
Lady Anne of Cleves. a Her first act as queen was one 
of mercy, for she proceeded to the Tower, and set ^ 39, P ' 324 ' 
free many prisoners. Most of them, it is true, were sufferers in 
what might be considered her cause ; but such was not 

. ’ b § 3 ? p. 330. 

the case of the widow of the Protector Somerset, b 

who certainly had no claim on her regard beyond compassion; 

yet she was released with the rest. 

§ 19. Edward, as the king under whom the English Reformation 
may be said to have begun, has been celebrated as a model ruler, 
by writers who forget how very little a sickly youth, who died be¬ 
fore he was sixteen, could possibly have had to do with it. His chari- 
15 


338 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book VI. 

The Beneficiaries of the King. Queen Mary’s Life and Character. 

ty is loudly praised in bestowing his palace of Bridewell on tlie citi¬ 
zens of London; but the fact is that he left the gift legally imperfect, 
and that it was his much-abused sister Mary who completed it. The 
grammar schools, too, that go by his name were mostly founded by 
private individuals, though the forms of the law ascribed them to 
the king; and the few institutions (as the well-known Christ’s Hos¬ 
pital or Bluecoat School) that he did endow cost him nothing, as 
the funds came from the suppressed chantres and 
a § 14, p. 3o5. j 10g p^ a ^ g a The proficiency that he evinced in lit¬ 
erature and the dogmatic tone of his writings show a general re¬ 
semblance to his father, which very probably might have become 
more complete had his life been longer. 


CHAPTER TV. 

REIGN of Mary. [a.d. 1553 TO 1558.] 

§ 1. Few sovereigns have a worse name among general readers of 
English history than Queen Mary, daughter of Henry the Eighth 
and his first wife, Catharine of Arragon. b This is owing 
* § 16, P . 315. that her political and religious enemies have 

written her history and impressed it indelibly. It is certain that 
she suffered far more, and was much more influenced by conscience 
in what she did, than any other of the House of Tudor. She had 
hardly emerged from childhood when the trouble about her pa¬ 
rents’ marriage began; and from that time forward until her acces¬ 
sion to the throne she lived in constant dread as to her liberty, if 
not her life, being obliged to make the most humiliating submissions 
to her brutal father, and sheltered from the violence of her brother’s 
advisers only by their fear of the power of Charles the Fifth. 

§ 2. In all these anxious years Mary’s only consolations were her 
religious exercises, her books, and such acts of charity as her limited 
income allowed. She had seen her mother die broken- 
c § 26, p. 319. j ieartec ^c an( j ] ier tutor lose his life rather than slander 
his royal mistress, by order of her inquisitors. She had seen the 
Countess of Salisbury, her governess, and many more 

§ 4i. p. j ier i n ti m ate friends put to death. d Others had 

pined for years in the Tower, and when she became queen she had 



Chapter IV.] THE TUDORS. 339 

Fate of Northumberland. Mary and her Enemies. Firmness of Bonner. 

just escaped a cunningly devised scheme for her destruction.* It is 
not then to be wondered at that she found it hard to 
pardon all the prominent actors in so much evil, though * § 17, p ' W8, 
she did pardon many. She was then thirty-seven years old—an age 
when it is difficult to erase impressions burnt, as it were, into her 
very soul. Any blame that is to be given must in part, at least, be 
borne by her advisers, and part also must be attributed to the then 
system of government, which looked on pardon too freely granted 
as a sign of weakness, and an abandonment of the duty of the ruler. 

§ 3. Mary was crowned on the first day of October, 1558, in St, 
Peter’s Church, in London^ by Bishop Gardiner, who omitted none 
of the ceremonials of the Roman Catholic Church. She had already 
taken vigorous measures to restrain her most dangerous enemies. 

§ 4. In a month after the failure of his mad attempt, Northum¬ 
berland b died on the scaffold with two of his associates, 

Sir John Gate and Sir Thomas Palmer. His brother, ^ ^ p ’ 3 " 6 ' 
Sir Andrew Dudley, was condemned with him, but was pardoned. 
Northumberland avowed himself a Romanist, and warned his hear¬ 
ers against turning religion into sedition, as he had done. “ His 
body, with the head,” says a writer of the time, “ was buried in the 
Tower, by the body of Edward, late Duke of Somerset,® 
so that there lieth before the high altar in St. Peter’s c ^ 3 ’ p * 330 ‘ 
church two dukes between two queens, to wit, the Duke of Somer¬ 
set and the Duke of Northumberland between Queen 
Ann d and Queen Katherine, e all four beheaded -a ter- * J J P ‘ ®j®’ 

rible picture of the Tudor times. But the government 
of which Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester, was now the head 
shed no more blood until a formidable insurrection in the follow¬ 
ing year warned them that they had enemies whom no leniency 
would conciliate. 

§ 5. One of the persons who had been most harshly treated by 
King Edward’s advisers was Bonner, Bishop of London. He had 
been deprived of his see, and had been imprisoned for years in the 
Marshalsea, this place being chosen as a studied insult, as none but 
the vilest malefactors, pirates, and murderers, were usually sent there. 
He had a spirit, however, that such usage could not break, and on 
one of the many occasions that he was brought before the comicil 
he replied to their threats: “ Three things 1 have, to wit, a small 
portion of goods, a poor carcass, and mine own soul. The two 
first ye may take, though unjustly, to you; but as for my soul, ye 


340 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book VI. 

Romish Prelates restored. Protestants persecuted. The Queen’s Good-Will. 

get it not.” Of course he was set free on the accession of Maiy, 
but his first appearance in public was marked by a disgraceful tu¬ 
mult. Bourne, his chaplain, inveighed at Paul’s Cross against the 
treatment that his lord had received, when a dagger was thrown 
at him, and he only escaped with life through the exertions of 
Rogers and Bradford, two of the Reformed preachers. Bonner 
had the pulpit guarded by soldiers on the next Sunday, and on the 
following one, nothing daunted by the threats of some of the 
Londoners, he restored the Latin service in his cathedral on his 
own authority, trusting that the parliament when it met would hold 
him blameless. 

§ 6. The other bishops had now been restored to their sees, and 
the queen had assured the citizens of London that she “meant not 
to strain men’s consciences in matters of religion.” Whether she 
meant to keep her word cannot now be known; but if she did not, 
she soon had an excuse that was called reasonable for breaking it. 
In consequence of the tumult at Paul’s Cross, an order had been 
given that no one should preach without a license. These licenses 
being granted only to the Romish party, the Protestants boldly 
preached without them, and were at once sent to Newgate and 
Fleet prisons, or the Tower, for their “seditious demeanor.” 
Among them were the prebendaries Rogers and Bradford, already 
mentioned, Latimer, who had been Bishop of Exeter in the time 
of Henry the Eighth, and Hooper, now expelled from Wor¬ 
cester to give his former place to Bishop Heath, who had 
attended Northumberland on the scaffold. Cranmer a 

a S 38 p 324 

8 t,p ' * was still untouched, and a report was spread abroad 
that he had offered to re-establish the mass in his cathedral. Peter 
Martyr, one of the foreign divines who were now ordered to leave 
England, and a man of hot temper, very unlike Cranmer’s, per¬ 
suaded him to deny this in a document of needlessly offensive 
tone. The archbishop was then summoned before the council and 
was committed to the Tower, where Holgate, Archbishop of York, 
was sent shortly after. 

§ 7. The queen had been crowned with all the ancient pomp 
(the ceremony on the last occasion had been greatly simplified on 
account of Edward’s youth), and as a proof of her good-will to 
her subjects, she declined to receive the taxes that had been voted 
in her brother’s last parliament. Her own parliament soon assem¬ 
bled, and at once swept away many of the statutes of Edward, 


Chapter IVJ THE TUDORS. 341 

Change In Public Worship. The Queen’s proposed Marriage. Insurrections. 

* abolishing a host of his new-made treasons, and re-establishing the 
Latin service. The second book of Edward a —Book 
of Common Prayer—was declared to be an abomi- ^ 6 ’ p ’ 331 ‘ 
nation. They also reversed the attainder of the Duke of Norfolk, 
and affirmed the marriage of the queen’s parents to be “most just 
and lawful.” b Next Cranmer, Lady Jane and her 
husband, 0 and his brothers Ambrose, Henry, and ^ 16, P ‘ 315 ' 
Robert Dudley were brought to trial, and pleaded 
guilty to the charge of treason. They were all sent back to the 
Tower, where their confinement was by no means rigorous. They 
were allowed to walk into the queen’s garden, and to receive 
visitors. Lady Jane, who had played queen most innocently for 
only a few days, was treated with especial consideration; and it 
seems not unlikely that none of their lives would have been taken, 
but for the mad enterprise of Sir Thomas Wyatt, a Kentish gentle¬ 
man of indifferent character and mean capacity. 

§ 8. A project was now on foot for the marriage of the queen to 
Philip, Prince of Spain, the son of her old protector, the Emperor 
Charles the Fifth. Both father and son were vehement opponents 
of the Reformed doctrines, and many of their followers in Eng¬ 
land thought no measure too violent to prevent the match. Wyatt, 
though a Romanist, took up arms, declaring that he wished to 
“save his country from Spanish slavery,” and posted himself at 
Rochester Bridge. The long-imprisoned Duke of Norfolk, who 

had beaten the Scots at Flodden forty years before, d 

•/ ^ 7 d § 5 p 310 

and was now more than eighty years of age, was sent 
against him with a force among which were some of the royal 
guard, and a body of 500 Londoners, commanded by one Alexan¬ 
der Brett. Wyatt contemptuously refused an offer of pardon, 
when the Londoners cried “We are all Englishmen ! ” and went 
over to him, and the aged duke was obliged to flee for his life, 
leaving his guns and baggage behind him. Wyatt now marched 
slowly on, and from Deptford sent a message to the queen requir¬ 
ing her to change her councillors, surrender the Tower to him, and 
go to reside there in his custody. Instead of this Mary repaired to 
the Guildhall at London, and having obtained a promise of sup¬ 
port from the citizens, who entirely disclaimed the doings of Brett 
and his men, returned to her palace, where she quietly awaited the 
event. 

§ 9. Two days after this [Feb. 5,1554], Wyatt quartered his men 


342 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book YI. 

Insurgents in London. The Queen in Peril. Insurrections Crushed. 

in Southwark ; but, being fired on from the Tower, he was obliged * 
to move off, though not before he had plundered Winchester 
House, the palace of Bishop Gardiner. The bishop had a very 
fine library, and of this the insurgents made such havoc, that we 
are told “ men might have gone up to their knees in leaves of 
books cut out and thrown under foot.” After this barbarous 
ravage they marched to Kingston, repaired the bridge, which had 
been broken down, and held on their way towards London all 
through the night, hoping to surprise the queen in her palace. 
Wyatt, however, was not equal to the .task that he had undertaken. 
Though every minute was precious, he wasted hours in endeavor¬ 
ing to bring on a gun that had broken down, but which he ob¬ 
stinately would not leave behind. His followers now began to de¬ 
sert him, one of the first to go being John Poynet, formerly Bishop 
of Winchester, but now displaced by Gardiner’s return to his see. 
At last, at ten in the morning, the rebels approached St. James’s 
palace, and skirmished with the royal guard and other troops, who, 
however, were not strong enough to do more than defend their 
posts. 

§ 10. Whilst the battle thus raged around her, Mary remained at 
her devotions with her ladies and her priests, and refused to take 
refuge in the Tower, though her life was manifestly in danger. 
Failing to force an entrance, Wyatt at length moved on, hoping to 
gain an entrance to the city; but he found the gates closed against 
him, and held by a son of the Duke of Norfolk. a 
a § 8, p- 341 • xjj-g followers now began to disperse, when a herald 
approached and exhorted Wyatt to merit the queen’s mercy by 
surrendering at once, and thus saving useless bloodshed. He took 
the advice, and was soon lodged in the Tower. About four hun¬ 
dred of his followers also surrendered or were taken, and were 
placed in Newgate^and other jails. Forty or fifty were executed by 
martial law; bitt the rest, being a few days afterward led into the 
court of the palace barefooted, and with ropes round their necks, 
the queen came out on a balcony, pardoned, and dismissed them. 

§ 11. Y/hilst Wyatt had been in arms, risings had been attempt¬ 
ed in Devonshire, Leicestershire, and Wales. They all signally 
failed, but the last was unfortunately headed by the father and 
the uncle of Lady Jane Grey. b Its immediate result 
d § 17, p. 3 A wag ^ execution of the unhappy lady and her hus¬ 
band, which took place five days after Wyatt had been brought to 


Chapter IV.] THE TUDORS. 343 

Execution of Lady Jane Grey. Protestant Bishops removed. Charges of Heresy. 

the Tower [Feb. 12, 1554], and would have been even earlier, only 
Dr. Feckenliam, the queen’s chaplain, begged a delay of three 
days, hoping to convert Lady Jane. He tortured her with questions 
and disputations, but did not succeed in changing her religious 
opinions; but he attended her to the scaffold. Wyatt, Suffolk 
(the father of Lady Jane), and his brother were executed; but 
several other persons of note, as Sir Peter Carew, Sir James Crofts, 
and Sir Nicholas Throckmorton either escaped or were pardoned. 
The Dudleys were also set at liberty, along with many other 
prisoners, but Cranmer was not released. 

§ 12. It was now seen that Cranmer and his fellow-bishops were 
not meant to be treated with the leniency that had been shown to 
the insurgents, for the archbishop himself had been a merciless 
persecutor. Eight of them were removed from their sees; 1 and 
though Scory of Chichester preserved his a little longer by re¬ 
nouncing his wife and doing penance, he too was soon after 
driven out. The inferior clergy also were pronounced incapable 
of holding benefices if married; and those who, after deprivation, 
would not part with their wives, were obliged to perform public 
penance as bigamists. 2 At length Cranmer, Ridley, and Latimer 
were taken to Oxford, and compelled to state their opinions on the 
chief points in dispute between the Reformers and the Romish 
Church. Instead of being answered, they were borne down by 
clamor, and the ominous sentence was pronounced that they were 
“obstinate heretics.” Cranmer had himself pronounced such a 
sentence on Joan Bocher, but he had a far longer time than she 
was allowed to prepare for what, in that age, was the inevitable 
result of such a declaration, whether pronounced in Rome, or 
Oxford, or Geneva. 

§ 13. The insurrections did not shake Mary’s purpose as to her 
marriage* for she was anxious to have a legitimate 

° ° a c s p 

successor to her throne, who would, like his parents, 

be true to the Romish Church. Neither did their failure put an end 

1 The Archbishop of York, and the Bishops of Bristol, Chester, and St. David’s were 
deprived because they were married, the celibacy of the clergy being rigorously en¬ 
forced in the Romish Church ; and the Bishops of Gloucester, Hereford, and Lincoln 
on the plea that they held their sees only by letters patent during pleasure, such being 
the mode that King Edward’s advisers had introduced—a mode never heard of before 
or since. The Bishop of Bath and Wells made his escape to the Continent without 
waiting to be condemned. 

i The priest was considered as already married to his “cure of souls;” hence his 
taking a wife was regarded as a second marriage. 


344 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book YL 

Impostors and their Pate. Marriage of Queen Mary. 

to the plottings of her opponents. The Protestant worship was 
prohibited, but it was carried on, and some at least of the fiercer 
spirits prayed for the queen’s death. Others encouraged an impo¬ 
sition in London, called the Spirit in the Wall, in which a young 
girl, Elizabeth Croft, hid in a cupboard, made use of a whistle, 
and some of her confederates pretended to explain the sounds as 
denouncing the queen’s marriage, the mass, confession, and other 
matters; and one William Thomas, who had been clerk of the 
council in King Edward’s time, endeavored to induce a man named 
Arnold to undertake the murder of the queen. Thomas was con¬ 
demned and executed, after attempting to commit suicide; and, 
contrary to the custom of the day, he behaved with violence on the 
scaffold, fighting and struggling, and exclaiming that he died for 
his country. The girl was dismissed on making an open confes¬ 
sion of her imposture at Paul’s Cross. But as, if the queen were 
murdered, it would be necessary to have a successor, some had 
fixed on the Princess Elizabeth, giving her for a husband Edward 
Courtenay, the young Earl of Devon, who had been released from 
a long captivity by Mary, 1 but seemed not unwilling to plot against 
her. The consequence was that both he and the princess were im¬ 
prisoned, though not, as has been said, for their adhesion to Pro¬ 
testantism. Courtenay was a Romanist, and Elizabeth at least 
professed to be one as long as Mary lived. 

§ 14. The marriage of the queen took place in July, 1554, and 
Philip, her husband, attempted to gain popularity by procuring the 
release of Courtenay and Elizabeth. Courtenay was allowed to go 
abroad, and died in Italy soon after; but Elizabeth fell under 
suspicion again, and lived in seclusion in the country, more like a 
prisoner than a princess, until she in turn became queen. 

§ 15. Shortly after Philip’s arrival a visitation was carried out 
by the bishops, having for its object the complete re-establishment 
of Romanism. The Protestants showed their dislike by composing 
ballads in ridicule of the restored ceremonial, and hung cats and 
dogs, shaven like priests, with a pwce of paper between the paws, 
meant to represent the consecrated wafer. One such was shown to 
the people at Paul’s Cross by one of Bonner’s chaplains, Dr. Pendle¬ 
ton, wdien'the feeling of one at least of his auditors was shown by 
his being fired at. Most probably on the advice of Philip, rigorous 


i He was the son of Henry, Marquis of Exeter, who was executed in 1539, as a favorer 
a \ is, P . 345. of Cardinal Pole,* and had been imprisoned ever since. 


Chapter IV.] THE TUDORS. 345 

Cardinal Pole. Attempts to reconcile England and the Roman See. 

measures were now determined on, though they were not carried 
out immediately. An object more dear to the queen’s heart was to 
be accomplished first. This was the formal reconciliation of her 
kingdom with the Holy See. 

§ 16. As the first step, when the parliament met in November, 
1554, the attainder of the honest and faithful Cardinal Pole was 
reversed. He had suffered many years of exile for his 
advocacy of her mother’s cause,* and it was by Mary’s 8 § 18, P ‘ 316 ‘ 
express desire that he was charged with the important mission to 
Rome as a pacificator. He was received with joy by her, and a day 
was appointed for the parliament to attend at the palace, to hear 
from himself what was to be done. After thanking them for the re¬ 
versal of his attainder, which allowed him once again to visit his 
native country, he truthfully said: “ If we inquire into the English 
schism we shall find avarice and sensuality the principal motives, and 
that it was caused by the unbridled appetite and licentiousness of a 
single person. Though it was given out that there would be a vast 
accession of wealth to the public, yet this expectation vanished. 
The Crown was left in debt, and the subjects, generally speaking, 
more impoverished than ever; and as to religion, the people were 
rigorously tied to forms, and fettered by penalties; and to speak 
plainly, there was more liberty of conscience in Turkey than in 
England.” 

§ 17. After claiming credit for the Holy See for refraining from 
putting the bull of excommunication b in force by the 
help that foreign princes had offered, Cardinal Pole b ^ 41 ’ p ' 325 * 
concluded by saying : “I have no prejudicial instructions against 
any person. My commission is not to pull down, but to build; to 
reconcile, not to censure; to invite, without compulsion. My busi¬ 
ness is not to proceed .by way of retrospection, or to question things 
already settled. As for past errors, they shall be overlooked and 
forgotten; but, to qualify yourselves for the pardon now offered, 
it is necessary to repeal those laws which have broken the Catholic 
unity, and divided you from the society of the Church.” This 
speech produced the desired effect. An earnest supplication was 
made by the parliament, through the king and queen, for reconcilia¬ 
tion; the cardinal pronounced a solemn absolution, and the whole 
of the statutes (nineteen in number) that had been passed since the 
year 1528, to the prejudice of the Holy See, were swept away by a 
single act. 

15* 


346 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 


[Book YI. 

Queen Mary’s Restorations. The “ Marian Persecution.” 

§ 18. T his would seem to imply that the abbey lands* 1 were to 
be restored, but the cardinal declared himself em- 
§ o3, p. 321. p 0werc( j £ 0 a h a nd 0n this claim; he would only lay 
it on every man’s conscience to make such restitution as he was 
able. The queen was the first, and almost the only person to act up 
to this; and as soon as the necessary arrangements could be made, 
she gave up the tenths and first-fruits, and restored all the church 
property that was still in her hands. She went further soon After¬ 
ward, for she re-established the Order of St. Jolin, b 
b § 42, p. 326. an( j en q owe( i Westminster and as many other religious 
houses as her scanty means could afford. These means were really 
small, for she had taken upon herself the payment of her father’s 
and her brother’s debts, and she discharged a great part of them. 

§ 19. Cardinal Pole no doubt spoke in all sincerity when he 
said that he came “ to reconcile, not to censure; to invite, without 
compulsion,” for he was one of the most amiable of men. But 
lie had to deal with some who took a very different view of things, 
and their violent counsels unhappily prevailed. The lamentable 
events known as the Marian Persecution followed [a.d. 1555] ; but 
the odium of this cannot with justice be laid on the queen, as is 
usually done. It is rather the harsh spirit of the privileged class 
of that age, than any one or two or three individuals (say Mary, 
Gardiner, and Bonner), that should bear the blame. The victims 
themselves had already shown that they were quite willing to act 
in a similar way. 

§ 20. Early in the preceding year the various foreign congrega¬ 
tions c had been ordered to leave the country, and 
§ 6, p. 33 . man y p ro testants had since joined them abroad. 
Now, when the old statutes against heresy were threatened to be 
re-enacted, so many more took the same step, that, except the 
preachers who were already in prison (as Bradford, Rogers, Phil- 
d pot), and the deprived bishops, d scarce any person of 

§ i~, p. 343. no ^ e rema i ne( j But those who had escaped abroad, 
by their violence made it all the worse for their poorer brethren 
who had not the means of flight. Afterwards the exiles disputed 
much among themselves on points of doctrine and discipline, and 
they wrote so sharply and most provokingly Concerning the Eng¬ 
lish government, that they injured their friends who were left be¬ 
hind. They issued what they termed a plea for liberty of con¬ 
science, in which they tried to alarm the holders of the abbey 


THE TUDORS. 


347 


Chapter IV.] 

The Queen Insulted. Protestants punished. Character of the Sufferers. 

lands with the idea that they would be taken from them; but 
that was a point on which full satisfaction had been given, or else 
the reconciliation with Rome "would never have been carried, so 
little were the penitents impressed with the idea of sacrilege. 

§ 21. The queen’s sex exposed her to insult, and John Knox, a 
Scottish exile, published a book most offensive to her, styled “ The 
Monstrous Regiment (Government) of Women.” Philip, too, was 
accused (and justly) of persecution in his own dominions; and 
Archbishop Gardiner was provoked by the republication of a book 
on True Obedience, that he had written many years before, in 
which he defended both the divorce of Henry the Eighth and his 
breach w r ith Rome. a In truth, he had been an active ^ 
agent in both ; though now he would willingly have ’ P " 
had it forgotten. It was in those days considered quite justifia¬ 
ble to burn a man’s body in the hope of saving his soul. This 
idea was held by Protestants as well as by Romanists, and was 
only exclaimed against by the former when they, and not merely 
Anabaptists, suffered by its application. The angry Gardiner ap¬ 
parently thought that a few terrible examples would be sufficient 
to bring the mass of Protestants to conformity, seeing that most 
of their acknowledged leaders were either in his hands,-or had 
fled away. He found himself mistaken, but the mischief was 
done. He could not stop the course of persecution if he would; 
and he died himself before the end of the year 1555—the mem¬ 
orable year of persecutions. 

§ 22. The number of sufferers during that year is variously 
stated, but the least estimate makes it about 300 who perished at 
the stake, and many more died in prison. The five prelates, Cran- 
mer, Ridley, Latimer, Hooper, and Ferrar, with Philpot, Rogers, 
and Bradford, and about a dozen others, were the only individuals 
of position or learning among them ; the rest consisted mainly of 
poor working-people, many of whom had been employed by the 
foreigners now banished, and had taken their religious opinions 
from them. Not but that the Reformers’ doctrines had made 
some progress among the better classes; but these either fled, or a 
mere nominal conformity was accepted from them. Certain it is 
that they had more freedom for worship, if they only conducted 
themselves quietly and did not force the authorities to take notice 
of them, than the Romanists enjoyed under Elizabeth, or the 
Church in the time of the Commonwealth. 


348 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 


[Book Yi * 


Fate of Cranmer and his Protestant Associates. His final Heroism. 


§ 23. But the poor and humble, who blindly followed more 
competent leaders, showed no such discretion, and some seem to 
have actually courted persecution. One of that class, William 
Flower, who had once been a monk, but was now a preacher 
among them, stabbed a priest at the altar in St, Margaret’s, West¬ 
minster, on Easter-day, 1555 ; and others, when brought before 
the magistrates, but particularly before the bishops, set them at 
defiance with most offensive words. Of course many such, who 
really deserved pity, suffered; but a still greater number were 
found in the next reign, who, whether truly or untruly, made a 
boast of how they had bearded the terrible Bonner a 
» § 5, p. 339. ^ t j ie a U-powerful Gardiner, b had reviled them in 
b j>3, p. ^39. g rosses t manner, styling them “limbs of Anti¬ 
christ,” and had denounced the mass as the invention of the devil, 
and yet lived to tell the tale. 

§ 24. It would be both painful and useless to dwell on this 
subject, but some remark must be made on the fate of Cranmer 
and his immediate associates. Hooper, the deprived Bishop of 
Gloucester, who, in Edward’s reign, had inveighed against the 


vestments of the clergy and other Iiomish features of the ritualism 
of the professed Protestant Church, was one of the very earliest 
victims, being burnt in February, 1555; but Cranmer, Ridley, and 
Latimer were earned to Oxford, and subjected, as w T e 
§ i~, p. 343 - j iave ^served, 6 to a lengthened trial before they met a 
like fate. Ridley and Latimer suffered in October, Latimer in his 
last moments encouraging his more timid fellow with words that 
have ever since sounded like prophecy: “ Be of good cheer, brother 
Ridley, and play the man. We shall this day light a candle that 
all the power of Rome may not put out.” Cranmer still remained 
—doomed to death, no doubt, but tempted with offers of life until 
he had solemnly recanted and disavowed, as abominable, all that 
he had said and done in the matter of the divorce d 

d § 26, p. 319. 

and against Rome. 


§ 25. The barbarous deception of the doomed archbishop was 
long kept up, and it was not until he was brought into St. Mary’s 
Church at Oxford that he became fully aware of what was in¬ 
tended. Then, exhibiting a courage that he had never shown 
before, he disowned all his six successive recantations, each more 
full than the last, and declared that the “ unworthy right hand ” 
that had signed them should suffer first of all when he came to the 


THE TUDORS. 


349 


ClIAPTER IV.] 

Revolting Acts. Plots. Civil War. French Influence. 

stake. He kept his word; and such fortitude in a man constitu¬ 
tionally timid was looked upon as something miraculous, and 
made a great impression. 1 The death of Cranmer is, in truth, the 
darkest feature of the Marian persecution. For so utterly to de¬ 
grade before destroying him was intolerable cruelty towards a 
feeble old man (he was almost seventy), whose greatest offence 
was that he had proved timid and time-serving, and had, like too 
many others, implicitly followed the bidding of the imperious 
Henry and the aspiring Northumberland 

§ 26. From this time forward the reign of Mary presents nothing 
but painful features. Cardinal Pole a had become 
Archbishop of Canterbury on the day after Cran- ^ 16, P ’ 345 ’ 
mer’s death, as well as papal legate, and held a visitation of the 
Universities, when not only English Bibles and “heretical books” 
were burnt, but the bodies of some of the foreign teachers of King 
Edward’s time b were removed from their graves and 
burnt also. This revolting act, however, was none of ^ P ’ 331 ’ 
.Pole’s, but his authority was abused by Scott, Bishop of Chester, 
and other personal enemies of the deceased. Meantime, plots were 
discovered to rob the Exchequer, and to betray the Isle of Wight 
to some of the English exiles who had planned an expedition 
from France for the purpose, the leader being Henry Dudley, who, 
though convicted of treason, had been released- after a brief im¬ 
prisonment. 0 Another exile, Thomas Stafford, with 

c § 11 p 342 

French help seized Scarborough Castle, and this led 
to a war. The queen had been long urged to join her husband 
(who, in 1556, had become King of Spain, as Philip the Second) 
in his war with France, but her ministers opposed it. Now that 
England was seen to be in danger from the intrigues of that power, 
they declined no longer. English troops were sent to Flanders, 
and had a great share in gaining for Philip the victory of St. 
Quentin, on the 10th of August, 1557. In return, the French in¬ 
cited the Scots to invade England, and a fleet sent against them, 
under Sir John Clere, was defeated with loss, and the admiral was 
killed. 

§ 27. But this was as nothing to the loss that was impending, and 
which forms as memorable a feature of Mary’s reign as the Perse¬ 
cution itself. The town of Calais had now been in the hands of 

1 One of the spectators, Julius [Jocelyn] Palmer, a Romish schoolmaster, was so 
impressed by it that he became a convert, and he was burnt not long after at Reading. 


350 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book VI. 

^ o, „ Its possession Coveted. The Queen s Distress. 

the English for more than 200 years," and through all the changes 
of government that it had seen, never had its defence 
a§ i3,p.2i°. been neglected until the time of Edward’s unprin¬ 
cipled ministers. They had weakened its garrison and neg¬ 
lected its defences, and Mary, burdened with tlieir debts, had not 
the means to repair the mischief. The Duke of Guise, a French 
general, marked the neglect. In the first days of January, 15o8, 
he suddenly appeared before the town, and, after a slight skirmish 
(in which one man only was killed) and a cannonade, without loss 
on either side, he captured the castle. On the following day the 
town was surrendered to him, the governor and fifty others remain¬ 
ing as prisoners, but the rest of the garrison and the inhabitants 
being allowed to withdraw. They were, however, plundered of 
all their goods and money, and would hardly have escaped with 
their lives but for the Scottish horsemen in the duke’s army, who 
guarded them through his camp. The town of Gumes was cap¬ 
tured on the 21st of January, and the strong fort of Hamme 
being abandoned -the same night, the English rule ceased. The 
French of course rejoiced greatly, and to the present day the dis¬ 
trict around Calais bears the name of the Reconquered Country. 

§ 28. The news of the danger of Calais caused large bodies of 
troops to be assembled at Dover; but the weather was too tempestu¬ 
ous for them to cross over at once, and the town was lost before it 
moderated. Philip offered to assist in its recapture, and the 
queen vehemently urged it on her council, addressing them herself, 
and styling Calais “the chief jewel of our realm;” but they de¬ 
clared that they should certainly recover it by treaty whenever 
peace should be made, and that the best way to bring that about 
was to carry on the war on other parts of the French coast. Ac¬ 
cordingly the English fleet assisted the Spaniards at the battle of 
Gravelines, and burnt some towns in Brittany; but they were not 
able to capture Brest, which they hoped to exchange for their lost 
“ jewel.” 

§ 29. The queen, who had long been ill with a prevailing fever 
and ague, and was prematurely old, took the failure very grievously, 
and at last she died, declaring that “Calais” would.be found writ¬ 
ten on her heart. This, however, was far from her only anxiety in 
her last moments. Cardinal Pole, her chief earthly hope for the 
perpetuation of Romanism hi England, lay on his death-bed at the 
same time; her husband had long been absent from her, and she 


THE TUDORS. 


351 


CnAPTER IV.] 


Death of Queen Mary. Her Character and Deeds. 

knew that all she had so striven to achieve would he undone by 
her successor, her half-sister Elizabeth. To that successor her will, 
executed very shortly before her death, is addressed, especially beg¬ 
ging her to pay her and their father’s and brother’s debts; to allow 
of her bequests to the religious houses that she had founded; but, 
more than all, to confirm her gift of four hundred marks a year for 
a hospital for old and maimed soldiers, “ the which,” she says, 
“ we think that honor, conscience, and charity willeth should be 
provided for.” Elizabeth, however, was of a different opinion, and 
kept the gift herself. 

§ 30. Mary died in the palace of Westminster, on the 17th day 
of November, 1558, at the age of forty-two years. She was not 
buried until nearly a month after her death, and enough had been 
done in the mean time to show that still greater changes were im¬ 
pending. Bishop White, of Winchester, who preached her funeral 
sermon, took for his text the passage, “ I praised the dead which are 
already dead more than the living which are yet alive,” and in 
praising her he was considered to reflect on her successor. He 
was therefore confined to his house, and was soon afterward de¬ 
prived of his see. From this time forward no one ventuied to 
defend her, and the returned exiles ft found a pleasure a § ^ p m 
in blackening her memory. Hence the belief that she 
was a monster of cruelty has come down to the present day, although 
in truth she was by far the most clement of the Tudors, as may be 
seen from the fact that many of Elizabeth’s principal ministers and 
favorites were men whose lives she had spared in spite of their re¬ 
peated treasons. Cecil, the Dudleys, Throckmorton, Ciofts, and 
Peter Carew may be mentioned among them. And when Lady 
Carew petitioned for leave to succor her husband who was in exile, 
Mary not only granted the request, but commended her for 
making it, declaring that she had only acted as a good wife should 
do. Very different tins from Henry’s murder, of the Countess of 
Salisbury for writing to her own son; b from Edward’s ^ g25 

indifference to the deaths of his uncles; c or Elizabeth’s § ^ m 
cruel jealousy, which led her to persecute to the death 
the sisters of Lady Jane Grey, merely because they were so unhappy 
as to be her kinswomen. 

§ 31. Mary possessed many good qualities. She was generally 
sincere and higli-minded, and shrank from that trickery and treach¬ 
ery in State matters to which her successor and half-sister was 


352 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book VI. 

Accession of Queen Elizabeth. Her Favorite. His Pretensions and Elevation. 

addicted as a general rule of conduct. Sbe was a bigot in an age 
when bigotry was the rule and toleration the exception. Judged 
by the standard of royal virtues in those days, it is unfair and un¬ 
just to call her, as historians and ecclesiastical writers have done, 
‘'The bloody Mary.” 


CHAPTER V. 

reign of Elizabeth, [a.d. 1558 to 1603.] 

§ 1. Tiie Princess Elizabeth, Henry the Eighth’s second daughter 
by Anne Boleyn, was twenty-five years of age when Queen Mary 
died and she became Queen of England. She was at Hatfield on 
the day of Mary’s death; and a few hours after that sovereign’s 
departure, she was proclaimed queen in front of Westminster Hall. 
Then the bells were set a-ringing, and fables were spread in the 
streets for “plentiful eating and drinking,” and at night bonfires 
blazed. That was on the 17th of November, 1558. On the 15th 
of January following she was crowned at Westminster Abbey, by 
Dr. Oglethorpe, the Bishop of Carlisle. 

§ 2. Like her sister Mary, Elizabeth received small kindness from 
her father; but, unlike her, she was in favor with tlieir brother Ed¬ 
ward. She professed a complete accordance with all his half- 
formed views, and thus passed for a firm adherent of the English 
Church; but when Mary came to the throne she showed herself 
equally ready to go to mass, and she did go to it. Her sincerity, 
however, was doubted, and she was looked up to by all who were 
dissatisfied with the check that the Reformation had received. 
When called to the throne, Elizabeth put herself at once into the 
hands of Sir William Cecil, a man who had been a good Protestant 
under Edward and an equally good Catholic under Mary, and was 
quite ready to make any further change that might advance his 
fortunes. When he had become a great man, he professed to dis¬ 
cover that he was descended from Sitsylt, a Welsh prince of older 
^ date than William the Norman ; a but the people of his 
~ ’ P ' ’ own day only knew that his grandfather had been a 
poor artisan, and his father a menial servant in the royal house¬ 
hold, who had the wisdom to send his son to college. The youth 



THE TUDORS. 


353 


Chapter V.] 

Adroitness of Minister Cecil. Change in Religious Services. 

was a diligent student, and tlms attracted the notice of Henry the 
Eighth. Afterwards he became secretary to Protector Somerset,® 
and having the worldly wisdom t© desert him at 
the right time, he thus gained the favor of his rival, 8 ’ ' 
Northumberland. b b § 14 ’ p ‘ 335 * 

§ 3. Cecil had shown equal address in regard to the bequest of 
the crown to Lady Jane Grey; for though his name appeared to 
it, he declared that it was only as a witness to the signatures of the 
rest—a plausible excuse from a secretary. Thus his offence was 
passed over. He was continued in office, and professing unbound¬ 
ed loyalty and devotion, he was next employed as one of the envoys 
to fetch over Cardinal Pole. 0 He, however, all along 
kept up a secret understanding with the Princess ° 8 ’ p ' 
Elizabeth, and now, at the age of less than forty, he became her 
prime minister, a post that \uf held for the remainder of his long 
life, moulding her to his own purposes while affecting to consult 
her wishes, and under all circumstances taking particular care to 
improve his private fortune. He always possessed her confidence, 
but her affections appeared to be given to Lord Robert Dudley (a 
son of the Duke of Northumberland), a married man of bad char¬ 
acter, but very handsome and of engaging address. His wife was 
murdered in his country-seat whilst he was at court, and he was al¬ 
ways treated with such marked favor that the queen was generally 
supposed to design to marry him. But this she did not do. 

§ 4. Under Cecil’s guidance Elizabeth entered London, receiving 
all who came to her graciously, with the exception of Bonner, to 
whom she showed such marked aversion as seemed intended to 
point him out for popular vengeance. Cecil had already prepared 
what he called “ a device for alteration of religion,” and forth¬ 
with the Service of King Edward’s time d was re-estab¬ 
lished in many places without waiting for parlia- ^ 6 ’ P ’ °’ j1 ‘ 
mentary authority; priests w r ere hindered in their ministrations 
and assaulted in the streets ; and the refugees flocking back from 
abroad occupied the pulpits, and preached angry controversial 
sermons. This soon rose to such a height that unlicensed preach¬ 
ing was forbidden by proclamation; but as the Lord’s Prayer, the 
Creed, the Ten Commandments, and the Litany were ordered to be 
said in English instead of Latin, as before, the Romanists saw that 
their overthrow was intended. 

§ 5. Though Mary’s councillors were all Romanists, they showed 


354 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book YI. 

Adventurers in Power. Everything reversed. Court of High Commission. 

every willingness to receive Elizabeth as queen; but it did not suit 
the policy of Cecil that they should long remain in office. On his 
advice they were displaced, and a body of mere adventurers like 
himself—“ men younger in years and meaner in substance,” he truly 
calls them—soon supplanted them, who were bent on making for¬ 
tunes for themselves out of the bishops’ lands, as the men of 
Henry’s time had done with the monasteries. 11 The 
a § 35, P . 322. bish0 p Sj alarmcd a t this, refused to crown the queen ; 

but one of then* number, Oglethorpe of Carlisle, was bribed to 
perform the ceremony. b The parliament met almost 
b § l, p. 352. imme di ate iy after, and, in spite of the opposition of 
the bishops and many of the peers, repealed all the statutes of 
Mary’s reign concerning religion. The first-fruits and tenths that 
she had restored to the Church c were again bestowed 
° § 18, p ‘ 34G ‘ on the crown, and the queen was authorized to seize 
all the bishops’ lands, giving them mere stipends instead. The 
money was to be furnished by the tithes that had belonged to the 
abbeys. The scheme was not carried out, but scarcely a single 
bishop was appointed during Elizabeth’s reign who had not to 
surrender a portion of the lands of the see as the price of his pre¬ 
ferment. Mary’s religious houses were now closed, and their 
revenues seized. The monks mostly took to some occupation for 
their support, but the nuns in general retired to foreign convents. 
Some found shelter with pious friends. 

§ 6. One act. of this parliament declared that its members “ did 
assuredly believe the Lady Elizabeth, by the laws of God and the 
realm, to be their lawful queen,” and with this general and vague 
declaration she remained content, never taking any step afterwards 
to have her mother’s marriage or her own legitimacy distinctly 
affirmed. d It was, however, made treason to deny her 
d § 20, p ‘ 319 ' title, and it involved the forfeiture of office to decline 
to swear that she was “the only supreme governor of the realm in 
things ecclesiastical as well as temporal.” By virtue of this act a 
Court of High Commission was set up to regulate ecclesiastical 
affaire. It was the counterpart of the Star Chamber 6 

e § 5, p. 29o. bav i n g on iy dls vdll of the sovereign for the limit 
of its powers; but, unlike that, it was not feared by the ordinary 
courts of law, and its proceedings were frequently interfered with 
and often controlled by them. 

§ 7. Before it closed, the parliament waited upon the queen and 


C n after V.] THE TUDORS. 355 

Elizabeth’s Coquetry and Vanity. The Revised Service-book disliked. 

presented an address, urging her to marry. She gave a vague 
reply, but at the same time she listened with apparent favor to the 
King of Sweden (as she did afterwards to other royal personages), 
and she even allowed some of her subjects to indulge vain hopes, 
as the handsome Sir William Pickering and the Earl of Arundel. 
Reasons of State forbade her marrying any one of them, or even the 
favorite Dudley, a who was created Lord of Denbigh g ^ ^ 
one day and Earl of Leicester the next; but to the 
end of her long life she encouraged the extravagant homage of 
her young courtiers, who approached her with hands shading their 
eyes, as if unable to look steadily on what they, to her face, 
termed her “ divine beauty.” She was tall, of a fair complexion, 
and usually with a cheerful expression of countenance; but one of 
her admirers tells us that this speedily changed to a “princely 
tartness ” when anything displeased her, and oaths and blows very 
often followed. She always dressed in the most sumptuous 
attire, loaded with jewels; and as she never allowed her raiment 
to pass to her attendants, she is recorded to have left not less than 
three thousand rich dresses in her wardrobe at the time of her 
death. 

§ 8. The Service-book of King Edward b had been re-established 
by the parliament, but it had previously undergone b $ g ^ m 
a revision, which made it distasteful to many of the 
clergy who had been in exile. The queen had a liking for the old 
pompous ceremonial, and the committee of revision, at the head 
of which was Matthew Parker, had reintroduced a part of this, so 
that those who had been used to the simple worship of the foreign 
reformers declared it to be only “ the mass in disguise.” On the 
other hand, it was refused by the bishops of Queen Mary’s time, 
and advantage was taken of this to dispossess them of their sees. 
They had before this been summoned to hold a disputation on 
articles of faith with some of the Protestants, and they were 
now treated as unfairly as they themselves had behaved to 
Cranmer, Ridley, and Latimer. After a single angry meet¬ 
ing they were charged with “ disorders, stubbornness, and self- 
will,” and sent to the Tower. The supremacy oath was then 
offered to them, which they refused, with only two exceptions, 
on which their sees were declared vacant. That was in the year 
1559. 

§ 9. Three or four of the bishops, as a matter of favor, were 


356 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 


[Book YI. 

Death of Bonner. Plundering. Radical and Independent Reformers. 

allowed to go abroad, and some died whilst the process was going 
on; but the rest were imprisoned for the remainder of their lives. 

Bonner of London n died in the Marslialsca, his old 
„ § 5, p. 339. p r j son mi( j er Edward the Sixth, in 1569. Thirlby of 
Durham expired at Lambeth in 1570, and Watson of Lincoln in 
Wisbeach Castle in 1584. The filling up of their sees presented 
serious difficulties. Cecil and his associates, the “ men meaner in 
substance,” sought not for the most suitable men, but for those who 
would surrender the largest number of episcopal manors to them in 
exchange for tithes or abbey lands of not a tenth of their value. 
In this they were abetted by the queen, who thus lessened the cost 
of her government; and several of the new prelates imitated the 
courtiers by plundering their churches on their own account. 1 
This system endured throughout the whole of Elizabeth’s reign, 
and Bishop Cox of Ely, who remonstrated against it, was threaten¬ 
ed with deprivation of his see. Matthew Parker, 
b § 28, p. 319. w k 0 had been chaplain to Anne Boleyn, b was ap¬ 
pointed Archbishop of Canterbury by the end of the year, and the 
sees of London, Ely, Bangor, and Worcester were filled a few days 
afterward. But more than three years elapsed before the whole 
were supplied. 

§ 10. The task of the newly-appointed archbishop was an ardu¬ 
ous one. He had remained in England during the late reign, and 
he had none of the prejudices against ceremonials that many of the 
exiles had imbibed abroad. Anything that had been connected 
with Rome was hateful in their eyes. Hence bishops and vest¬ 
ments, common prayer and organs, the use of the cross in baptism 
and of the ring in marriage, were alike odious; and they showed 
very plainly that they considered no allegiance due to any sovereign 
less opposed to the old ritualism than themselves. Many also, from 
their residence in the republican communities of Switzerland and 
Germany, had imbibe:! an independence of thought that gave 
tone to their actions which was very distasteful to Elizabeth and 
her obsequious advisers. By the queen’s injunctions, “seemly 
habits, garments, and square caps” were required to be worn, and 

i Perhaps the worst of these men was Edmund Scambler, afterwards known as “ scan¬ 
dalous Scambler,” a chaplain of Archbishop Parker. When made Bishop of Peter¬ 
borough, he, as the price of his promotion, conveyed much of the lands of his see to 
Cecil, who thus gained the chief part of his lordly estate of Burghley or Burleigh. 
Scambler was made Bishop of Norwich several years afterward, and he mercilessly 
plundered that see to enrich his family. 


Chapter V.] THE TUDORS. 357 

Innovators punished. Rise of the Puritans. Policy of the Government, 

to these many of the more prominent of the radical Protestants 
had invincible objections. Considerable latitude in these matters 
was for a time allowed them, and they were suffered to hold pre¬ 
ferments without conformity being insisted on. 

§11. Of course the original objectors to the Romish ceremoni¬ 
als soon found imitators; and at last, when the innovations be¬ 
came too great to be any longer borne, Parker was ordered to deal 
peremptorily with them. This was done by the High Commission 
Court; a but as he was its president, it exposed him to a § 6 p 354 
furious reproaches from the more violent of the party. 

One of them, remarking that he was the seventieth archbishop, said 
that seventy was so complete a number that it would be a pity 
that he should not be the last; and his difficulties were increased 
by the support which some members of the Government gave to 
them. He complained of this double dealing, as purposely in¬ 
tended to throw the odium of persecution on the bishops, which it 
very probably was. He acted up to his instructions, however, and 
Sampson and Humphrey, who were masters of colleges at Oxford, 
and were looked up to as leaders, were deprived of office, by 
which it, was wrongly supposed that their followers would be 
intimidated. The contrary effect followed, and from this time 
[a.d. 1565] may be dated the formation of an organized party of 
nonconformists, who, because of the austerity of their morals and 
purity of their lives, were called, in derision, Puritans. They 
held secret religious meetings, from which the Prayer-book was 
excluded. Then they rejected some of the doctrines, as they had 
already cast off the discipline of the Church. With this “ disobe¬ 
dience,” as it was termed, to the hierarchy, they combined what 
was called disloyalty to the State, for their habit of thinking and 
independence in action made them bold in asserting the rights of 
the subject. Such was the rise of the Puritans, who appeared at 
the middle of the sixteenth century as pioneer champions of civil 
and religious liberty. 

§ 12. Though Elizabeth and her ministers had thus a great 
cause of uneasiness, which sprang directly from the connection of 
her subjects with the foreign reformers, political considerations 
led them to put her at the head of the religious malcontents in 
France, in Holland, but especially in Scotland, in b§31p 347 
spite of her dislike of the earnest John Knox, who 
had declared government by a woman to be “ monstrous.” b In all 


358 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book VI. 

Elizabeth and the Huguenots. Mary Queen of Scots. “ Congregation of the Lord.” 

these countries the Reformers had takeh up arms, and it ap¬ 
peared a matter of good policy to afford them aid, thereby dis¬ 
tressing their Catholic sovereigns, who, as Cecil well knew, looked 
on Elizabeth as an illegitimate usurper. The conduct of the 
French Reformers, who are known as Huguenots, was strongly 
condemned by her, because, after receiving from her assistance in 
both men and money, they suddenly made their peace with the 
king, and joined his German mercenary forces in driving out 
their allies. But stress of circumstances, it is well known, com¬ 
pelled them to take the course which offended her. The English 
were besieged by them in Havre-de-Grace, but made a gallant 
resistance, and at length only surrendered when worn out with 
famine and the plague. The survivors brought the pestilence 
with them to England, and many thousands perished in the year 
1562. The Dutch also received aid from her; but their story 
belongs to a later period. 

§ 13. Elizabeth’s attention was most engaged by the Scots. So 
great was her, or rather Cecil’s influence with them, that she was 
far more their sovereign than either of their nominal rulers. At the 
time of her accession, Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots, whom Henry 
had desired should become the wife of his son, a was 

8 § 46, p. 327. 

in France, the wife of the heir to the French throne; 
and by the command of her father-in-law she and her young hus¬ 
band soon afterward assumed the title of King and Queen of 
England. Her mother, Mary of Guise, was her regent in Scot¬ 
land, and was supported by French troops. Elizabeth had, in 
the mean time, concluded a peace with France, though without 
b § 28 p 350 recoyer ^ n S Calais, as had been expected, b and she 
was not able to renew the war; but she sent a fleet 
to assist the Scots of all classes, who had formed a Protestant 
league, and styled themselves the “ Congregation of the Lord.” 
They formed a large army, each member of which marched with 
a small Bible in one hand and a sword in the other. They cap¬ 
tured Leith, where a thousand French soldiers had been quartered 
in the interest of Mary. Then a treaty was entered into by which 
Mary resigned the title of Queen of England; but she in¬ 
sisted on still bearing the English royal arms, as an evidence of 
her claim to the eventual succession to the throne. 

§ 14. The Scottish Reformers were now triumphant, and, under 
the guidance mainly of John Knox, whose spiritual trumpet could 


CnArTEJi V.] THE TUDORS. 359 

Destruction of Churches and Abbeys. Mary in Scotland. Nonconformity. 

quickly summon a large army to the field, they made such havoc 
Df churches and abbeys as far exceeded all that had been done in 
England. “Throw down their nests and the crows will take 
flight,” was his exhortation, and in consequence the noblest 
structures of the land went to the ground. The church lands 
were seized by the nobles ; the bishops were replaced by superin¬ 
tendents on the foreign model; all former ecclesiastical establish¬ 
ments were swept away, and libraries were wantonly destroyed. In 
the course of a few days Scotland was covered with the ruins of 
the stateliest temples dedicated to the worship of God, and the 
most venerated shrines. 

§ 15. Whilst this anti-Romish feeling was at its height, Mary, 
haring become a widow, and finding the French queen a most 
unfriendly mother-in-law, returned to her native land, which she 
had left when a child,* and from that moment she 
fell into the power of a number of rapacious and P ’ u ’ 
cruel men, who were the paid agents of the English ministers. 
They frequently quarrelled and fought among themselves, but the 
result was always to her injury; and her long imprisonment and 
death were due far more to their violence and treachery than to 
anything that has ever been proved against her, though accusa¬ 
tions, to screen the accusers, are plentiful. 

§ 16. The act that re-established King Edward’s Service-Book, b 

commonlv known as the Act of Uniformity, contained 

1 ^ ^ p S31 

a clause directing all persons to repair to their parish 
churches on Sundays and certain holy days. Although this was 
not agreeable to the Roman Catholics, they, for several years of the 
queen’s reign, gave such a compliance as screened them from the 
penalties of the statute. But at length this occasional attendance 
was declared to be sinful, 1 and they went no longer. Many of 
the old monastics still remained, and at once congregations were 
formed in which they ministered, while priests who had left the 
country on the death of Mary, returned. It soon became evident 
that the conformity that had appeared to be brought about was 
in many cases a mere delusion. That age knew no other mode of 
swaying its subjects than compulsion, and accordingly the penal¬ 
ties for absence from church were now enforced with ruinous 


i The Coifncil of Trent, which had been called in 15-15 to oppose the Reformation, 
and had held occasional sittings np to 1503, denounced the practice at almost its last 
meeting, and it was at once abandoned. 


300 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. ^ [Book VI. 

Mary’s Scotch Husband. Plots and Murders. Mary abdicates. 

effect, but in vain. The number of “recusants,” as they were 
termed, steadily increased, and persons of wealth among them 
began to send their sons abroad for education, from which very 
important consequences arose in after years. 

§ 17. Mary of Scotland, a though all but a prisoner in her own 
country, and exposed to personal insults from Knox 
« § 13, p. 358. t ] lc 0 ther preachers, who commonly styled her 

Jezebel, was an object of jealous dislike to Elizabeth and hei 
ministers. She had the advantage of the English queen both in 
youth and beauty, and her religion made her an object of regard 
to the Anglo-Roman Catholics. Unhappily for herself, she mar¬ 
ried her cousin, Henry Damley, a weak and profligate young man 
whose family claimed royal rights. He often treated her with 
brutal insolence, so as to bring tears into her eyes in public. He 
joined himself with Murray, her natural brother, and other Pro¬ 
testants, whose avowed aim was to dethrone her as an idolater. 
After a time these confederates quarrelled, and the house in which 
Damley lay ill was blown up [a.©. 1567] by then- contrivance, 
though they had the baseness to ascribe it to Mary. 

§ 18. Associated with Murray and the rest, though with different 
motives, was James Hepburn, Earl of Rothwell, a man of daring 
character, who was resolved to turn their common crime to his 
own special advantage. He hardly pretended to conceal his share 
in the murder, but when accused of it he appeared in court with 
a body of fully-armed friends. The Earl of Lennox, Damley’s 
father, did not dare to come forward, and of course he was de¬ 
clared innocent. The “ Congregation of the Lord ” b 
b § 13, P . 358. had cntcred in a bond f or the destruction of Darnley, 

and Botliwell imitated them by getting his friends to enter into a 
similar engagement to assist him in seizing the crown. To be 
ready for this he had already divorced his wife, by mutual con¬ 
sent, on some idle pretence of relationship, and he now seized the 
unhappy queen and forced her to marry him. The other mur¬ 
derers, however, rose against him, when he fled from Scotland, 
and lived for a time by piracy ; but, being captured by the Danes, 
ended his days a prisoner and a madman ten years afterward. 
The queen was compelled to resign her crown in favor of her son, 
a child by Darnley only a year old, and she was then confined m 
an island in Lochleven. That son was afterward James the Sixth 
of Scotland and James the First of England. 


c § 15, p. 187. 


Ciiafter V.] THE TUDORS. 361 

Mary tries to regain her Throne. Doings of her Enemies. 

§ 19. Mary’s half-brother Murray now became regent, but the 
queen escaped in the following spring, and endeavored to recover 
the throne. Her small force was defeated at Langside, when she 
crossed the Solway Filth into England in an open boat, almost un¬ 
attended. She wished to repair to Elizabeth’s court, to justify 
herself ; and when this was refused, she desired to withdraw to her 
relatives in France. But she found herself a prisoner [a.d. 1568], 
and that, too, in the hands of men who hated her because they 
had injured her. 

§ 20. Mary was now only twenty-six years of age, and her beauty 
and fascinating manner^ made friends for her wherever she came. 
This was soon painfully evident to Elizabeth’s ministers, and 
Leicester a himself is the witness, that within a year 
of her arrival a warrant was made out for her execu- ^ 7 ’ p ‘ 
tion. In the mean time, Murray b and others came ** * 17, P ' t ' c °‘ 
into England, and, with a deference to Elizabeth’s supremacy such 
as the Scots had once paid to Edward the First, 0 
laid their accusations against Mary before a board of 
English commissioners at York. But even this prejudiced body 
declined to convict her; and the Duke of Norfolk, who was at 
their head, testified his belief in her innocence in the strongest 
manner by wishing to marry her. Still she was kept a prisoner, 
and plots began to be formed for her release. Norfolk was 
induced to take some part in the matter, when he w r as betrayed 
and beheaded in the year 1572. He was one of the ancient 
nobility, and therefore odious to such new men as Leicester and 
Cecil (now Lord Burleigh), who both sat on his trial. 

§ 21. Even before Elizabeth came to the throne, the Nether- 
landers had taken up. arms to resist the introduction of the Inqui¬ 
sition, and had for a while been successful; but in 1567 Philip of 
Spain, d their sovereign, sent the Duke of Alva with 
an army to reduce them to obedience. Many of the d § 26, P ' 349 ' 
Netherlander fled to England, and as they brought with them 
some useful manufactures, they were warmly welcomed. Philip 
complained of the slight, but could obtain no redress. On the 
contrary, as the Netherlander had now a fleet, many of the Eng¬ 
lish joined them, whilst others, though war had not been de-. 
dared, assailed the Spanish treasure-ships. Hawkins, Drake, and 
other well-known seamen commenced their career in this piratical 
manner; and to Hawkins belongs the additional disgrace of 
16 


362 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book VI. 

Insurrections. Complaints against Elizabeth. Bull of Excommunication. 

having begun the slave trade between Africa and America. Alva 
in return seized on the English merchants’ goods, and the Spanish 
ambassador in England supplied the funds for an insurrection, 
which was meant to set free Mary, and also, if possible, to over¬ 
throw Elizabeth and restore Romanism. The Earls of Westmore¬ 
land and Northumberland made the attempt [a.d. 1569], but an 
experienced Spanish officer sent to direct their movements was 
intercepted on his way. As they had themselves no skill in arms, 
many who were ready to join them held back. Their plan entirely 
miscarried, though they got possession of Durham Minster, and 
re-established the mass there for a short time. 

§ 22. This abortive attempt, which is known as the Rising of 
the North, was an infinitely less serious affair than Wyatt’s rebel¬ 
lion, and never for an instant put Elizabeth in personal danger; 
but it was far more rigorously punished. Westmoreland escaped; 
but Northumberland was, after a three years’ imprisonment, given 
up by the new Scottish ruler, Morton, for a bribe of £2,000 (for 
Murray a had already been assassinated), and exe- 
» § l <, p. .-.GO. CU £ e( j. } n e y er y market-town in the North mar¬ 

tial law was carried out with terrible severity, nearly seventy per¬ 
sons being hanged in the city of Durham alone. Besides those 
actually concerned, many wealthy Catholic families were ruined by 
forfeiture on the mere suspicion of disaffection. Some of these 
found employment in the Spanish armies, others were pensioned 
by Philip, but more wandered over the continent, filling every 
Catholic country with complaints of the cruelty and injustice of 
Elizabeth’s government. The effect was soon seen. A bull, called 
a “ sentence declaratory ” of excommunication and deposition, had 
been prepared long before. It was now issued [a.d. 1570] by Pope 
Sixtus the Fifth, and fixed upon the house of the English ambas¬ 
sador at Paris. In very coarse language it stigmatized the queen 
as an illegitimate usurper and a heretic, who had endeavored to 
destroy the Catholic faith and practice, and it declared her de¬ 
prived of the throne, and her subjects absolved from all allegiance 
to her. An enthusiast named John Felton, who affixed a printed 
copy of this bull on the gate of the Bishop of London’s palace, was 
seized and executed as a traitor. 

§ 23. From this time to the end of Elizabeth’s reign a life and 
death struggle was maintained with France and Spam and the Pope. 
All the malcontents in the dominions of the one received support 


Chapter V.] THE TUDORS. 303 

Help for the Netherlands and the Huguenots. Jesuit Propagandists. 

from the other. Elizabeth now openly avowed the proceedings of 
her sailors, which she had before styled piratical, and supplied 
men, money, and arms to the Netherlander and the Huguenots. 
Philip sent soldiers and the Pope sent priests to Ireland, where a 
civil war was thus maintained for years. Spanish agents got up 
plots against her life, which were foiled by the sagacity of Sir 
Francis Walsingham, himself a man of dark and designing char¬ 
acter, who labors under the imputation of being as unscrupulous 
as any of his opponents. 

§ 24. The evil effect of forcing the Romanists to send their 

children abroad for education a was now seen, as per- 

. , . • i _ _' . ,. . , a § 16, p. 359. 

sons had been found who turned this to a political 

purpose. For these youths a college had been established at Douay, 

in Flanders, by Dr. Williams, afterwards Cardinal Allen, a learned 

man who had been the Principal of St. Mary’s Hall at Oxford in 

the preceding reign. 1 Some of his pupils no doubt took to other 

courses, but many of them entered the priesthood. The effect that 

sending these young men back to England might be expected to 

produce was at once perceived. Institutions called seminaries 

were soon established in France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, and the 

Netherlands, with the avowed object of training up English 

youths as priests, who should be ready at the command of their 

superiors, and at whatever risk, to return to England in order to 

attempt to “convert the souls of their countrymen and kinsmen.” 

§ 25. At about the year 1574, the “Seminarists” from Douay 
began to arrive in England in considerable numbers, and in every 
imaginable disguise. They moved about from place to place, and, 
hidden in secret chambers in old manor-houses (the recesses since 
well known as “ priest’s holes),” often escaped detection for years. 
But when captured (and they were eagerly hunted down as the 
worst of criminals), though they earnestly disclaimed all political 
motives, they suffered as traitors. One Cuthbert Mayne, who was 
hanged in 1578, is spoken of by Romish writers as the “proto- 
martyr of Douay.” In the course of the queen’s reign more than 
200 of these Seminarists were executed, but the enterprise was not 
abandoned. One cf the most enfinent of their number, Edmund 


1 At that college a translation of the Bible into English was made by Dr. Gregory 
Martin, assisted by Drs. Allen, Richards, and Briston. The “Douay Bible,” as this 
translation is called, is the English version accepted by the Roman Catholics ever since. 


364 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 


[Book YL 

A Jesuit’s Declaration. Condition of Romanists. Persecutions. 

Campion, a Jesuit, made a declaration to the queen’s council, which 
he and others fully acted up to so far as suffering was concerned. 
“ Be it known unto you,” he says, “ that we have made a league, 
all the Jesuits in the world, whose succession and multitude must 
overreach all the practices of England, cheerfully to carry the 
cross that you shall lay upon us, and never to despair your re¬ 
covery, while we have a man left to enjoy your Tyburn, or to be 
racked with your torments, or to be consumed with your poisons. 
Expenses are reckoned, the enterprise is begun; it is of God, 
it cannot be withstood. So the faith was planted, so it must be 
restored.” Many of the sufferers are known to have been learned 
and amiable men. But there were among them others of widely 
different character, and the government, seeing them backed by 
the Pope and the King of Spain, naturally became too much 
alarmed to discriminate between them. 

§ 26. Though the Romanists still formed the majority of the 
population, the condition of most of them was pitiable in the ex¬ 
treme. Students holding their opinions were driven from the 
Universities; but many of these became lawyers, and by their skill 
the severity of the laws was in a measure averted, until at last a 
kind of sufferance was allowed, provided no open display was 
made. But to be a priest w T as to incur daily the actual risk of 
death. All who succored them were in equal danger; and it was 
only the personal favor of the queen to some few nobles, and the 
corruption of the courtiers, who for money shielded the rich, whilst 
the poor filled the prisons, that allowed even a shadow of the old 
form of religion to exist. Year after year, however, saw fresh 
“Seminarists” arrive, and though the laws were made more and 
more severe, the government at length got in some measure tired of 
its useless rigor, and long before Elizabeth’s reign came to a close 
it had become the custom to imprison or banish rather than to hang 
the greater part of these “ disobedient persons.” 

§ 27. But even in thus dealing with these propagandists, almost 
incredible hardships were inflicted, as is confessed in publications 
issued by the government in its own justification. From these it ap¬ 
pears that the prisoners in the Tower were carried by main force to 
the chapel to hear themselves and their faith reviled; that they were 
put on the rack to make them confess who had given them shelter, 
and that one priest at least (Alexander Briant) was remorselessly 
starved to death. He licked the moisture from his prison walls, so 


Chapter V.] THE TUDORS. 305 

“Massacre of St. Bartholomew.’* Its effect. Conduct of Radical Puritans. 

urgent was his thirst, and he was refused all food unless he would 
apply for it in writing, the object being to make him show himself 
the author of some seditious papers. 

§ 28. Soon after the execution of the Duke of Norfolk,* an event 
occurred in France which sent a thrill of horror 
throughout Christendom. Catherine de Medici, the “ § 2 °’ P ' 3G1 * 
dowager Queen of France, b acting as the willing in- b § 15, p ' S59 * 
strument of the family of Guise (of which the mother of Mary of 
Scotland was a member), 0 consummated a plan for 
the destruction of the French Protestants known as * § 18, p ‘ 358 ‘ 
Huguenots d throughout the kingdom. At her insti- * § 12, P ' ' m 
gation her weak son, Charles the Ninth, issued a secret order for 
their massacre at a chosen time. The dreadful work began in Paris 
on the eve of the festival of St. Bartholomew [Aug. 24,1572], and 
seventy thousand Protestants perished within the borders of France. 
Among the more conspicuous victims was the eminent Admiral 
Coligny, who had been treacherously invited to court under a 
guise of friendship. The queen dowager sent his head to Pope 
Gregory the Thirteenth, then just elevated to the pontificate, who, 
in testimony of his satisfaction because of the destruction of so 
many heretics, caused a memorial medal to be issued. 

§ 29. This event caused so much fear of the power and inten¬ 
tions of the Roman Catholic rulers, that the various Protestant 
States were drawn together more closely. And it seriously affected 
Mary of Scotland (a relation and presumed partisan of the Guises 
and Catherine of France), who, though a prisoner, was feared as 
well as hated; and thoughts of putting her to death were again 
entertained. But these gave way to more urgent matters, and she 
was left to endure many years of prison-life. 

§ 30. The danger in which all Protestants were supposed to stand 
from the union of Spain and France and the Pope, had no effect 
in causing the Puritans to cease from their attacks on the Anglican 
Church, which they considered quite as corrupt and dangerous to 
religious liberty as the church of Rome. On the contrary, the 
more urgent the apparent danger seemed, the more clamorous did 
they become, and their zeal partook largely of fanaticism. Some 
of them were disposed to establish such a democracy in religious 
matters that all ecclesiastical order would be obliterated. They de¬ 
sired to sweep away episcopacy, set forms of prayer, vestments and 
ceremonies, music and the observance of festivals; every “ godly 


3GG 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 


[Book VI. 

Separation of Church and State proposed. Power of the Puritans. 

man” to be allowed to pray and preach after his own fashion. 
But the more thoughtful, who perceived the necessity of a bond of 
union in governmental form, insisted only upon the more ancient 
and primitive presbyterian order in the organization of the church 
of the realm. At the same time they, with their more zealous 
brethren, denied the right of civil magistrates to interfere in eccle¬ 
siastical matters. They boldly declared the necessity of a total 
separation of Church and State for the good of true religion—a 
feeling now powerfully working throughout Christendom. 

§ 31. Such views could not, of course, be tolerated by so impe¬ 
rious a governor as Elizabeth; but they had supporters among her 
ministers, and especially in the parliament.® Their 
a § o, p. 3.)3. g rea ^ c h am pj 0 n was ThCmas Cartwright, a member of 
the University of Cambridge, and an eloquent preacher, who was 
never tired of pointing to bishops and all belonging to them as 
“limbs of Antichrist.” He was expelled, but not silenced; for he 
had the courage to address an “ Admonition to the Parliament ” 
[a.d. 1572], in which the most bitter and contemptuous language 
was employed towards the church. This was in consequence of 
the parliament having abandoned their intention of abolishing 
many rites and ceremonies on hearing that the queen was displeased. 
The Admonition was followed by the establishment of a presbytery 
at Wandsworth, and the example was followed in other places. 
The government now interfered, silencing some of the most vehe¬ 
ment Puritan preachers, when Cartwright Went ‘abroad. 

§ 32. Archbishop Parker b had pointed out to the queen the 
revolutionary spirit by which the Puritans were actu- 
§ p. 3oo. a ^ e( ^ an q as i on g as ] ie lived they were kept in a 
measure in check. But on his death, in 1575, his see was given 
to Grindal, Archbishop of York, who had been one of the ex¬ 
iles, 0 and whom the Puritans claimed as “ their own.” 
c § - , p- He was a man of most amiable character, but quite 
unfit to control or to contend with such spirits as the stern Puri¬ 
tans possessed. Under his nominal rule they were allowed to hold 
what they called “ prophesyings,” where ministers who had been 
silenced for non-conformity were at liberty to preach and pray, 
and declaim against both Church and State, until the government 
peremptorily stopped them and suspended the archbishop. He 
died soon afterward [a.d. 1583], and was succeeded by Whitgift, 
Bishop of Worcester, a man of a firm spirit, who had already writ- 


THE TUDORS. 


3G7 


Chapter V.] 

The Puritans Checked. Discovery of America. Walter Raleigh. 

ten against the Puritans, and who showed that the law would be 
too strong for them so long as he lived. 

§ 33. Whitgift’s firmness was potential. No more presbyteries 
were formed, and though the Puritans printed at a secret press some 
most offensive tracts, as the production of “ Martin Mar-Prelate,” 
they could not again induce the parliament to take up their cause. 
Their champion, Cartwright, found himself overmatched, and 
retiring to a preferment that his patron Leicester had given him, 
he abandoned the cause for which he had so long contended, and, 
his enemies said, grew rich by usury. But his followers, though 
nominally conforming, to avoid penalties, retained their peculiar 
opinions; and as many of them lived as chaplains in noblemen’s 
houses, or took to school-teaching, they had the opportunity, 
which they did not neglect, of spreading them widely, as was seen 
in the next reign. 

§ 34. At about this time some of the most notable events of 
Elizabeth’s reign occurred—-events which cast into insignificance 
and contempt the disputes of bigots, the jealousies of monarclis, 
and the quarrels of courtiers, with the attendant ill consequences 
to the people, the narration of which forms the bulk of the recorded 
history of that time. They were the efforts of a few of her subjects 
to make discoveries and plant colonies beyond the Atlantic Ocean. 

§ 35. Late in the preceding century, Columbus, of Genoa, had 
asked the rich King of England, Henry the Seventh,* 1 
to assist him in testing his theory that a continent ^ P * ~ 95 * 
might be found by sailing westward over the Atlantic Sea. Henry 
refused; but that bold navigator, aided by Isabella of Spain, dis¬ 
covered some of the West India Islands near the American conti¬ 
nent. A little later an English navigator (Cabot) discovered the 
continent itself; but during the lapse of full three-fourths of a 
century after the Genoese sailed from Palos, no real progress was 
made toward a permanent European settlement in the new-found 
world. Some English navigators had explored the northeastern 
coast of America in search of precious metals; but it was not until 
the middle of Elizabeth’s reign that efforts were made to plant 
settlements in the milder regions of the northern portion of the 
vast continent. 

§ 36. There was a young English courtier named Walter Ra¬ 
leigh. who, while learning the art of war with Co- 

& ' ° b § 28, p. 365. 

ligny, the eminent French Huguenot, 1 ’ had heard of 


368 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 


[Book VI. 

Attempted Settlements in America. England helps the Netherlands. 

the middle regions of North America. His step-brother, Sir 
Humphry Gilbert, obtained a patent from the queen for making set¬ 
tlements in the New World. Raleigh joined him in the enterprise. 
After several unsuccessful efforts to reach that middle coast, Gil¬ 
bert was lost at sea; but Raleigh, undismayed, sent other ships, 
and succeeded in making a settlement on Roanoke Island, on the 
coast of the present North Carolina. That was in the year 1585. 
The navigators of his vessels had given a glowing account 
of the country. The queen declared that its discovery was one 
of the most glorious events of her reign; and in memorial of 
her unmarried state it was called Virginia. But this first set¬ 
tlement, and another made two years later, were broken up and 
destroyed by the Indians, or aborigines, who were badly treated 
by the English people. 

§ 37. Whilst the Church was disturbed by zealous reformers, the 
State was made equally unquiet from apprehension of the invasion 
which Philip of Spain, 11 Queen Mary’s husband, was 
8 § 26, p ' 349 ' known to be preparing. As one means of averting the 
danger, it was thought advisable to give efficient assistance to the 
Netherlanders, and accordingly the Earl of Leicester b 
b § <, p. 354. was gent ^p em w ith an army. Admiral Drake was 
at the same time despatched to the West Indies, in the hope of 
capturing the Spanish treasure-ships, and thus bringing the pro¬ 
jected Armada, or great fleet, to a stand for want of money. 
Neither expedition was very successful. The treasure-ships eluded 
Drake, and Leicester showed conspicuous incapacity as a leader, 
besides offending the queen by accepting the supreme government 
of the Netherlands without her permission. He was soon recalled. 
The most remarkable event of his campaign was the death of his 
nephew, Sir Philip Sidney, commander of his cavalry [Oct., 1586], 
who was eminent alike as a scholar, a courtier, and a soldier. 
So high was Sidney’s character that, in the year before his death, 
he was named as a candidate for the crown of Poland. 

§ 38. Philip continued his preparations, and, whether with or 
without his knowledge is not certainly known, some zealous 
Romanists began to plot for the assassination of the queen. Wal- 
singham, 0 however, prevented any of their schemes 
§ 23, p. 362. e f£ ec t } and Anthony Babington, a gentleman of 

fortune; Savage, a soldier in Philip’s pay; Ballard, a priest, and 
eleven other persons suffered as traitors. But Walsingham’s inqui- 


THE TUDORS. 


Chapter V.] 


369 


Mary Queen of Scots accused, tried, and beheaded. A Royal Hypocrite. 

sitorial diligence was pushed further than the defeating of this 
plot. One of his spies had mixed in it, and from his statement 
and Babington’s confession it appeared that Queen Mary had some 
knowledge of the matter. Her friends say that only a righteous 
attempt was to be made to set her at liberty; her enemies, that she 
was consenting to Elizabeth’s death. Walsingham undertook to 
prove this last assertion, which brought her within the terms of an 
act passed some time before, at the suggestion of Leicester, de¬ 
nouncing death against any one who should either make or sanc¬ 
tion any attempt on the queen’s life. Mary’s papers were seized, 
her secretaries were questioned, and she was soon removed from 
Tutbury to Fotheringhay Castle, where her so-called trial took 
place. As her death was already determined on, the commission¬ 
ers, though they heard her charge Walsingham with forging some 
of the letters that he produced, and falsifying others, soon closed 
their investigation. They returned to London, and 
there, in the Star-chamber, a pronounced her guilty ^ 5 ’ P ‘ 29 °‘ 
of having “compassed and imagined the death of the queen.” 
That was on the 25th of October, 1586. 

§ 39. The parliament met soon afterward, and made it their 
urgent request that the unhappy prisoner might be executed. 
Elizabeth affected great reluctance, but she confirmed the sentence; 
and when it w r as published in London every house was illumi¬ 
nated, all the bells were rung, and the populace showed a barba¬ 
rous joy, “ making bonfires and singing psalms in every street and 
lane in the city.” This was in December, 1586; but Elizabeth 
appeared in no hurry to carry out the sentence. She listened to the 
representations of the French and the Scottish ambassadors, and gave 
them ambiguous answers; and it was not until the first of February, 
1587, that she would sign the death-warrant. This she gave into 
the care of William Davidson, her secretary. Her council knew that 
they only carried out her real wishes when they sent it to Fotherin¬ 
ghay, where, in accordance with it, Mary was judicially murdered 
dn the 8th of February, 1587. When that deed was done, the 
royal hypocrite on the throne professed the most extreme sur¬ 
prise, anger, and sorrow; but she easily suffered herself to be paci¬ 
fied when her councillors told her that “ the life of one Scottish 
and titular queen ought not to weigh down the safety of all Eng¬ 
land.” But, as a sacrifice to appearances, the unfortunate secre¬ 
tary, Davidson, was prosecuted in the Star-chamber and ruined, 
16* 


370 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book VI. 

Patriotism of the English People. Preparations to meet Invasion. 

his “ good masters of the council ” having the baseness to swear 
that, he had acted without orders. 

§ 40. Soon after the death of Mary, Drake was again despatched 
against the Spaniards, and he brought back the news that the in¬ 
vasion would certainly be attempted in the following year. The 
most vigorous preparations were made to meet the danger, the 
Romanists joining heartily in them, whilst the Puritans showed 
lukewarmness. This was at the very period when they were as¬ 
sailing the church more harshly than ever in the Mar-Prelate 
tracts, a a fact that was long remembered to their dis- 
‘ § 33 ’ p - 367 ‘ advantage. But a thoroughly patriotic spirit pre¬ 
vailed throughout the kingdom. A fleet of about one hundred 
and forty vessels was got together, and the Nether- 
b § 37, P . 368. landers b supplied sixty more. Three armies, of 
70,000 men altogether, were collected, and a camp was formed at 
Tilbury, where Leicester commanded, and which the queen visited, 
declaring that she had come to die there if necessary. “ I know,” 
she said, “ I have but the body of a weak and feeble woman, but 
I have the heart of a king, and a king of England, too.” The 
fleet was under the command of Lord Howard of Effingham, a 
Roman Catholic, the son of Lord William Howard, Queen Mary’s 
admiral, and he was assisted by Admirals Hawkins, Drake, Fro¬ 
bisher, and many other bold seamen whose names are most con¬ 
spicuous in English history. 

§ 41. The Spanish fleet was of vastly superior force, number¬ 
ing not less than one hundred and thirty ships of war, most 
of"them of much larger size than any of the English vessels. It 
carried, beside the ships’ crews, an army of 22,000 men, a large 
number of volunteers from the first families in Spain, and 180 
priests and monks, for it was hoped to convert as well as to con¬ 
quer England. To assist in the work there was a large store of 
whips, chains, thumbscrews, and other instruments of torture on 
board. The Duke of Medina Sidonia, a man unused to the sea, 
was in command; but he was assisted by Martinez de Ricaldi, a 
hardy Biscayan mariner, 6 and when the fleet rendez- 
c § 15, P . 211. yoused at L^bon, which it did in the month of May, 
1588, it made so gallant a show that Philip seemed justified 
in styling it “the Invincible Armada”—a name which it yet 
bears" in history. The Pope had sent his blessing, and a conse¬ 
crated banner, and the fleet set sail on the 1st of June, 1588. A 


Chapter V.] THE TUDORS. o i X 

Appearance of the Armada. Its destruction. Humiliation of the Spaniards. 

storm, however, arose, and the Armada was obliged to take refuge 
at the Groyne, having already suffered so much that a report was 
spread of the expedition being abandoned until the following 
year. Lord Howard, however, visited the Spanish coast with a 
few vessels, found that the damage suffered had been purposely 
exaggerated to throw him off his guard, and, returning to port, 
revictualled his fleet. 

§ 42. Only a week after Howard’s return the Armada came in 
sight. It was far too strong for him to venture to oppose its pas¬ 
sage, and it sailed proudly up the Channel, making for the coast 
of Flanders, where 80,0Q0 veteran troops and a body of English 
deserters 1 were to be taken on board. But this was never accom¬ 
plished. The Spaniards were very poor seamen, and managed 
their huge ships so badly that three of them were captured by 
the active English who followed them in their small vessels. At 
length they arrived in Calais roads, where they anchored. Here, 
at night, Howard sent eight fire-ships among them, which created 
such a panic that they cut their cables and thought only of escape. 
Many of them, instead, got on shore, others surrendered without 
resistance, and the plight of the rest was so pitiable that the 
Spanish general, the renowned Duke of Parma, refused to suffer 
his troops to embark. And so the intended invasion was perforce 
abandoned. 

§ 43. But the miseries of the Spaniards were only now begin¬ 
ning. Even if they would face the English fleet, it seemed impos¬ 
sible to pass through the Straits of Dover, owing to heavy westerly 
gales, which, being unusual at that time of the year, inspired 
them with superstitious dread. They therefore resolved to attempt 
to return to Spain by passing to the north of Scotland. They 
threw their mules and horses overboard, in order to save water, 
and then took to flight, followed as far as the Orkneys by the 
English ships, which made fresh captures every day without a 
blow, so entirely was the haughty Spanish spirit humbled. Then 
the English ammunition failed. The pursuit was discontinued, 
and the fugitives had only the dangers of almost unknown and 
stormy seas to contend with. Some who were wrecked on the 
coast of Scotland were humanely succored; but those who were 

i These had garrisoned Deventer, under the command of Sir William Stanley. He 
was accused, unjustly, of being concerned in Babington’s conspiracy, on which he sur¬ 
rendered the town to the Spaniards, and joined their army with his whole force. 


372 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book YL 

Rejoicings in England. Contributions for War. Operations in Portugal. 

lost among the Hebrides 11 and on the Irish coast were mostly put 
to death. At last, in the month of September, 1588, 
n§9,p ’ 2 ' the remains of the Armada reached Spain, where 
their wretched condition excited great grief. But Philip pro¬ 
fessed to be little disturbed by it, saying that he had still fleets 
and armies to send against heretics ; and he at once set about pre¬ 
paring for another expedition. 

§ 44. The destruction of the Spanish fleet, though far more the 
work of the weather than of anything else, very naturally gave 
occasion for extravagant rejoicings in England. The captured 
flags were carried in solemn procession to St. Paul’s, the queen 
herself accompanying them, and many of the finest weapons were 
placed in the Tower, where some few of them may yet be seen. 
The prisoners taken were very numerous, and some of the more 
considerable were ransomed by the Duke of Alva; but the rest 
pined out their days miserably on board of prison-ships moored at 
the mouth of the Thames, as the people were so embittered against 
them that they could not safely be brought on shore. But a more 
dignified revenge was taken in the summer of the next year. 

§ 45. By contributions from all classes in England, and even by 
collections in churches, the sum of £50,000 was raised for the pur¬ 
pose of fitting out a new land and naval expedition. When 
preparations were completed, Drake and Norris led the fleet and 
army to Portugal, which on their way stormed the town of Co¬ 
runna, defeated a strong Spanish force, and destroyed a vast num¬ 
ber of ships, with their stores, which Philip had already collected 
for a new attempt. Their great object, however, was to place a 
Portuguese prince, Don Antonio, on the throne of Portugal, as 
Philip had treacherously seized on the country a few years before, 
on the occasion of its king (Sebastian) being killed in battle with 
the Moors, They did not succeed, as the Portuguese showed no 
inclination to take up arms. Norris landed, and marched unop¬ 
posed to Lisbon; but as Drake remained to plunder Cascaes, and 
so gave him no help, he was obliged to retire. The two com¬ 
manders naturally quarrelled, and after burning Yigo they returned 
to England, where they met, a very ungracious reception from the 
queen. She had borne a part of the expense of the expedition, and 
looked for an ample return of treasure. But this was not the 
case. What prizes were made were bought for a tenth of their 
value by the merchants at Plymouth, and the sum received was so 


Chapter V.] THE TUDORS. 373 

Ruinous warlike Enterprises. The Huguenots disliked. Civil War in France. 

small that the soldiers and sailors received only five shillings each 
for their five months’ labor. Many in consequence took to plunder, 
and they even concerted a plan for robbing the merchants at St. 
Bartholomew’s Fair; but the vigilance of the London citizens 
defeated this, and a great number of executions followed. 

§ 46. The queen’s early favorite, Leicester, had been chosen by 
her to command the army at Tilbury. a He died very 
soon after the dispersion of the Armada, and he was * §40, p * 37 °* 
succeeded in her affections by his stepson, Robert Devereux, Earl 
of Essex, a handsome youth just come of age. He had already 
shown great gallantry under Leicester in the Nether¬ 
lands, b and he wished to sail with Drake, but the b§37 ’ p - m 
queen forbade him. He, however, secretly joined the expedition, 
led the party that first landed in Portugal, though the water rose 
to his shoulders, and dispersed the enemy at the point of the pike. 
Afterwards, when the garrison of Lisbon retired within their walls 
without fighting, he sent a challenge by a trumpeter offering single 
combat to any man of his own quality. He was peremptorily re¬ 
called before the close of the expedition, and his rashness was for¬ 
given, though the queen had at first threatened to hang Sir Roger 
Williams, a veteran soldier, for favoring his escape from the court. 

§ 47. This expedition to Portugal was the first of many retalia¬ 
tory enterprises in which the naval and military men, the nobles 
and courtiers, joined with an eagerness proportioned to the wealth 
that they hoped to acquire. But these hopes were fallacious; 
and not only Hawkins and Drake, but the Earls of Essex and Cum¬ 
berland, Sir George Carey, Sir Walter Raleigh, and many more, 
after incurring almost incredible hardships and dangers in their 
adventurous cruises, all died ruined men. 

§ 48. The conduct of the Huguenot leaders in the early part of 
Elizabeth’s reign c had prevented any effectual assis¬ 
tance being given to them by her, even when the c§12 ’ p>357 - 
massacre of St. Bartholomew [a.d. 1572] made them an object of 
pity in all Protestant States. d With brief intermis¬ 
sions the war was carried on between the successive d § 28, P ' 363 ‘ 
kings, Charles the Ninth and Henry the Third (with the Guises and 
other heads of the Catholic League), and the Huguenots headed by 
a prince of the blood, Henry of Bourbon. In 1589 Henry the 
Third was assassinated, and Bourbon became king as Henry the 
Fourth. To him succor was freely sent, and English troops, com- 


374 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book VI. 

The Edict of Nantes. Spaniards assail England. Their Influence in Ireland. 

manded by the Earl of Essex, Lord Willoughby, and Sir John 
Norris, took a very active part in the war. But Henry the Fourth 
found his Protestantism an insuperable objection with the great 
bulk of his subjects, and he therefore became a Romanist, by 
which he at last secured his throne. He, however, granted free¬ 
dom of worship to his old associates, and also put into their 
hands several strong towns, thus making in reality another king¬ 
dom within his realm. This arrangement is known in history as 
the Edict of Nantes, issued on the 13th of April, 1598. He also 
made peace with the Spaniards, by whom the Leaguers had been 
supported, and thus England was again in danger of invasion. 

§ 49. The Spaniards had borne the destruction of their Armada 
very uneasily, and it needed all the vigilance and skill of the Eng¬ 
lish commanders to foil their projects. They managed to send men 
and money into Ireland, where the Roman Catholics were fiercely 
persecuted, and English authority was for a while reduced to a 
very low ebb. They landed in Cornwall and burnt the town of 
Penzance in the year 1595, and in 1602 a fleet of Spanish galleys 
ranged the English Channel for a while, until encountered and de¬ 
stroyed by Sir Robert Hansel. They also captured Calais in 1596; 
but in the same year their own city of Cadiz was taken by the 
English and Dutch, and an attempt was soon afterward made by 
the former on the islands known as the Azores, in the North 
Atlantic Ocean. This last attack failed; the Spanish treasure-fleet 
»§ 47 p 373 escaped, and Essex and Raleigh, a the commanders, 
b , o J p 34{) quarrelled so fiercely over the miscarriage that they 
were enemies ever after. Philip of Spain b died in 
1598; but his son, Philip the Third, inherited his projects and 
much of his disposition, and caused great alarm by announcing an 
invasion of England as the first step that he would take. The 
Earl of Nottingham (the Lord Howard of Effingham who had 
foiled the Armada) c was made “ lieutenant-general 
of the kingdom by sea and by land,” and he took 
his measures so well that the scheme was abandoned. 

§ 50. It was seen that the Spaniards still possessed a very dan¬ 
gerous influence in Ireland, where, through their support, one chief 
especially, known as the O’Neil, 1 had headed an insurrection and 

1 This was Hugh, son of the Baron of Duncannon, whom the queen had made Earl 
of Tyrone, and who had exalted himself to be the O’Neil and rightful Irish sovereign 
of Ulster. 


b § 41, p. 370. 


Chapter V.] 


THE TUDORS. 


375 


i § 1, p. 154. 
b § 47, p. 373. 


• § 39, p. 369. 


Essex sent to Ireland. He fails. He is overthrown by Cecil. 

foiled several English commanders. He assumed the state of an 
independent prince, though he bore the title of Earl of Tyrone, 
which had been conferred on a former O’Neil when Henry the 
Eighth assumed the style of king, instead of Lord of 
Ireland." Essex, 1 ’ who* was always covetous of ap¬ 
plause, was, at his own request, sent against 
O’Neil, but only achieved his own ruin. The great minister, Bur¬ 
leigh, was now dead, and his place in the queen’s councils was 
aspired to by his younger son, Robert Cecil, much to the indigna¬ 
tion of Essex, who claimed to bear rule wherever he appeared, 
whether in the court or the camp. 

§ 51. The queen was now growing old, and the question as to 
who was to succeed her employed the active wits of all her cour¬ 
tiers. Both Essex and Cecil, therefore, entered separately into 
secret communications with James Stuart of Scotland, the son of 
the beheaded Mary. c But the hasty, impetuous 
Essex was no match for the crafty Cecil, now the 
queen’s favorite. He apparently discovered this, for after wasting 
his time in fruitless marches after the O’Neil, and then holding a 
suspicious secret interview with him [Sept. 5, 1599], he threw up 
his command and hurried back to England without permission, 
and forced himself into the queen’s presence, saying that he de¬ 
sired to justify himself from the calumnies of his enemies, Cecil 
and Raleigh. But he had reckoned wrongly on the queen’s affec¬ 
tion. He was committed to custody for a while, and was after¬ 
wards, when released [Aug., 1600], forbidden to approach the 
court. He had always been a popular favorite, but he now applied 
himself more than ever to gain the good-will of all. The discon¬ 
tented of all classes flocked to him, and at last, some eighteen 
months after his return from Ireland, he attempted to raise an in¬ 
surrection. What was his object in this, beyond driving his oppo¬ 
nents from the court, is uncertain; but the attempt utterly failed, 
and he was now helpless in the hands of his enemies. He was 
tried and found guilty of high treason, and was executed on the 
25th of February, 1601. This act was greatly resented by the 
populace in London, who attempted to murder the executioner on 
his way home. 

§ 52. The queen lived but two years after the tragical end of 
the ambitious Essex. She had long carried on a friendly corre¬ 
spondence with James of Scotland; had often supplied him with 


376 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book VI. 

The Queen and her Successor. Her Death. James of Scotland proclaimed King. 

money, and at last she settled a yearly pension on him; but she 
would never make any formal declaration of accepting him as her 
successor. Her courtiers, however, eagerly contended for his 
favor as their future king. She gained a knowledge of this, and 
it disquieted her extremely. She said that talking of her successor 
was pinning her shroud round her face. At last, early in the year 
1603 she became seriously ill, and as she obstinately refused the 
aid of medicine, she grew rapidly worse, and her death was hourly 
expected. Even then she hesitated, and to the direct question that 
her councillors were obliged to put, would only reply, “Who 
should succeed me but a king ? ” While the queen was dying, a 
mounted horseman, Sir Robert Carey, loitered in the courtyard of 
the palace at Richmond; and when, at two in the morning of the 
24th of March, 1603, a light placed by agreement in a certain win¬ 
dow was extinguished, he knew that the queen was dead. It was 
even so. She expired in a stupor, without any apparent pain, 
after having intimated, in a negative expression, her desire that 
James the Sixth of Scotland should be her successor. She was 
then in the seventieth year of her age, and the fifty-fifth of her reign. 

§ 53. Immediately on the death of the queen Sir Robert Carey 
galloped off, and though he met with an accident by the way, he 
reached Edinburgh late at night on the 27th March [1603], and 
saluted James as King of England. A messenger sent by Arch- 
a ^ oe) ^ 36g bishop Whitgift, the Primate, a speedily followed, 
and the prelate was gratified by the assurance that 
the church might rely on the protection of the new king. James 
in the mean time had been proclaimed in every town in England, 
his correspondent Cecil reading the proclamation in London, 
and every one appearing to acquiesce and rejoice in the peace¬ 
able settlement of the succession. 

§ 54. As the ruler in whose time the Reformation was consid¬ 
ered as accomplished in England, Elizabeth has received more 
praise from some, and more blame from others, than she really de¬ 
served. As in the case of her sister Mary, she probably had little to 
do with the harsh mode .in which her government was generally ad¬ 
ministered ; but some cases in which she was personally concerned 
show that she was innately as proud and cruel as Henry himself. 

§ n p 342 ru ^ er ordinary humanity could have acted as 
" she did to her cousins, the sisters of the unfortunate 
Lady Jane Grey. b Mary Queen of Scots was, no doubt, the vie- 


THE TUDORS. 


377 


ClIAPTER VI.] 


Elizabeth's Character and Reign. The Reformation partially carried out. 

tim of political views as well as of personal jealousy and offended 
vanity ; but no such excuse can be offered in the cases of Catherine 
and Mary Grey, who both died in misery after years of imprison¬ 
ment, merely because they had ventured to marry without first ob¬ 
taining her permission. 

§ 55. Two large classes of Elizabeth’s subjects also were made 
to feel that she could bear heavily on all who presumed to think 
for themselves. These were the non-conformists or ^ ^ 

Puritans, 11 and the Roman Catholics. She seems to have " ’ P ’ 

entertained an absolute personal dislike of the former. She took 
care to have them excluded from several general pardons which she 
issued; and one most severe act, passed in the year 1593, “to 
restrain the queen’s subjects in obedience,” was especially directed 
against them. Under its provisions the Puritans Barrow, Green¬ 
wood, Penry, and others were executed. The quarrel with the Ro¬ 
manists was more that of her ministers, and was originally politi¬ 
cal rather than religious; for though she was easily persuaded 
to sanction whatever severe measures the elder Cecil and others 
proposed, she always had Romanists in high office at court. 
And in her own chapel she retained many of the ceremonies of 
the old religion, to the deep offence of the Puritans. They 
regarded the Reformation as but half earned out in her reign, 
and they looked for its completion to her successor, but they were 
disappointed. 


CHAPTER YI. 

SOCIETY IN THE TIME OF THE TUDORS. 

§ 1. So much has been necessarily mentioned in our record of 
the civil and military transactions of the period of. the Tudor dy¬ 
nasty, from the accession of Henry the Seventh b to the b g j p 295 
death of Elizabeth (a space of one hundred and 
eighteen years), concerning the changes in England in religious 
opinions, and of persecutions because of difference in such opi¬ 
nions, that very little remains to be noted relative to the religious 
aspect of the realm during that eventful age. It was a period of 
wonderful events in the world’s history—a period of the great 



378 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book YL 

An Eventful Period. Protestants. Iteligious Controversies. Intolerance. 

Schism, as the Roman Catholics call it—of the great Reformation, 
as the Protestants call it, in Germany, which spread to other 
countries within the bounds of Christendom. It w r as the period, 
too, when the printing-press appeared as a new and marvellous 
power among men, and with wonderful might grappled in tre¬ 
mendous conflict with kingcraft and priestcraft, while it also at 
times became their powerful auxiliary. 

§ 2. At the Diet of Spires, called by Charles the Fifth, Emperor 
of Germany, in 1529, a decree was passed to support the doc¬ 
trines of the Church of Rome against schismatics like 
§23, p. oi . si x German princes protested against the 

decree, and they, and all who left the Church of Rome were from 
that time called Protestants. They declared in that protest the 
inalienable right of every man to the exercise of private judg¬ 
ment in religious matters, and the freedom of conscience‘from 
priestly and magisterial interference. That was the fruitful seed 
which took root in England, as well as on the Continent, centuries 
after Wickliffe b had prepared the soil. And when 
b s ’ p ’ ‘ the vile Henry the Eighth, for lustful purposes, ended 
the supremacy of the Church of Rome in his dominions, and vir¬ 
tually declared himself to be pontiff as well as king, 0 
c § 44, p. >. rapid growth of that seed .was a logical result of 
the action at Spires. 

§ 3. Controversies everywhere watered the Protestant seed, and 
persecution gave strength to the vigorous roots, from which sprang 
Puritanism, d and its sturdy antagonist, the Angli- 
d ^ n ’ p ' 3 ° 7 ' can Church. Both struggled for supremacy through 
the w T hole of Elizabeth’s reign, and fiercer still in that of her suc¬ 
cessors. The actors in those great struggles, in which the Romon 
Catholics also bore a conspicuous part, were generally cruel 
Christians, and the one who held the power for the moment was 
the persecutor. Bigotry, superstition, and passion, instead of 
enlightenment', reason, and calm judgment, were generally their 
guides. Toleration was .almost unknown. Brute force, stronger 
than argument, w r as generally employed by all parties. Fines, 
imprisonment, the gibbet and the axe were the penalties inflicted, 
by whichever party was in power, for non-conformity to religious 
ritual and belief. 

§ 4. During the dynasty of the Tudors there were important 
changes in the government and laws of the realm. At the acces- 



Chapter VI.] THE TUDORS. 379 

Constitutional Monarchy foreshadowed. Wickedness of the King. 

sion of Henry the Seventh, a the once formidable power of the feudal 

aristocracy b had disappeared. Statutes were enacted 

_ • 1 i a § 1, p. 295. 

which limited the power and restrained the rapa- 

1 b § 4, p. 96. 

city of the nobles. At the same time the royal pre¬ 
rogative was somewhat abridged, and a shadowy precursor of 
constitutional monarchy appeared in fact as well as in name. Yet 
the kingly functions might be and were used for the exercise of 
the most tyrannical and oppressive measures under the solemn forms 
of law. And the king and his council, chosen by himself, sitting 
as a high criminal court, as in the Star-chamber, 0 con- c ^ g ^ 2gg 
stituted, when occasion called, the most terrible des¬ 
potism. It was systematic, and was more to be dreaded than the 
rude despotism of the less enlightened ages in English history. 
English liberty, as it is now defined, was largely theoretical until 
the death of Elizabeth, and some time afterward. The people 
had not yet appeared as a power in the State. 

§ 5. In the reign of Henry the Eighth the royal prerogative 
reached its height. That bad man, with a parliament always 
obsequious and cowardly and base, established a reign of terror 
more dreadful than that of the French Revolution. He caused 
to be created so great a number of treasons that no man could 
feel that his life and property were safe for an hour; in fact, 
the lives of the people were entirely in the hands of the crown. 
Every action and word of a subject that might be construed 
to affect the royal dignity was defined as treason. New oaths 
were introduced, and the most ingenious methods for creating 
guilt were devised. The king became as absolute in authority 
as any of the Caesars, and he wielded an atrocious tyranny that 
has no parallel in history, excepting in the wild and inhuman 
caprices of a crazy Caligula. d “ One wonders,” says d § ^ p ig 
a late English writer, “in reading of these things, 
that human beings, with the most moderate portion of sagacity 
and courage, could have endured such a state of existence, and 
should not have preferred to it the chances and dangers of insur¬ 
rection. For insurrection, however, it seems this was not the 
time. The spirit and power of the higher nobility were broken ; 
those of the people, or rather of the lower nobility or gentry, and 
of the middle class or yeomen, the really solid men of England 
(for the people were not destined to come upon the scene till long 
after this date), had not yet arisen.” 


380 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 


[Book VI. 


Divine right of Kings. Legislation in three Reigns. 

§ 6. And now the preposterous claim of the divine right of 
kings to rule, so paraded by the Stuarts afterward, was fore¬ 
shadowed in a statute giving to the king and his council power 
to act independently of all laws, in emergencies, by virtue of the 
monarch’s “ royal power given by God,” as the act expressed it. 
With that assumption of divine appointment and inspiration, 
Henry practically said to his people, as Louis the Fourteenth did 
to the Parliament of Paris, “L’etat! c’est moi! ’’—The State!. I 
am the State. It gave him a warrant for denying and defying 
the papal power, and expelling it from his dominions, undei the 
dictates of his passions,* whereby his wickedness 
» § 25, p. 318. wroU g] 1 ^ incalculable blessings for his people. Thus 
was opened a way for the exercise of the right of free thought 
in religious and political matters, which the German Refoimers 
declared to be every man’s birth-right, which led the English 
people surely though slowly out of the terrible bondage of king¬ 
craft and priestcraft to civil and religious liberty. 

§ 7. The principal legislative acts of the short reign of the 
boy-king, Edward the Sixth, b were those relating 
b § l, P . 329. tQ the state re iigion, for it was a time of violent 
controversy on that subject—a time of preparation for a transi¬ 
tion from the rule of Romanism to that of Pro- 
c § l, P. 338. testantism Those of Mary,® the first queen regnant 
<i § l, p. 95. ^ i ine 0 f the Conqueror, d looked to the resto¬ 
ration of the power of the Romish Church in her realm. Acts 
were passed annulling all additions to the law of treason which 
Henry had made, 6 and for enacting some new ones. 


e § 5, p. 379. 
< § 1, p. 352. 


The first work done on the accession of Elizabeth* 
was the establishment of the Reformation upon the 
same footing where the death of her brother Edward left it. 

By statute, the supremacy over the church was as 
fully given to the new queen as to her father^ by 
which she might exercise absolute spiritual control as a pontiff 
in her realm, through persons appointed for that purpose. This 
was the origin of the Court of High Commission, 11 
one of the most dangerous weapons ever placed in 
the hands of a monarch. It was intended to be an instru¬ 
ment for crushing the power of the Romish hierarchy, but it 
became, in the hands of such men as Laud, in Charles the 
First’s time, a sharp and powerful instrument of religious and 


e § 29, p. 320. 


h § 6, p. 354. 


THE TUDORS. 


Chapter VI.] 


381 


The Thirty-nine Articles. National Industry. Foreign Trade. 

political tyranny. This court and the Star-chamber “ constituted 
two engines of arbitrary power, wielding the rack, the 
torture, and the prison, which, perhaps, were never 8 ^ 5 ’ P ' 3 ° 6 ' 
surpassed by any contrivance of government to keep the people in 
continued awe of the sovereign authority lodged in the King and 
the Primate of the church. 

§ 8. It was this court which set forth [1571] in present form 
the Thirty-nine Articles of Religion (compiled from a body of 
divinity arranged in Edward the Sixth’s time), which have ever 
since formed the creed of the Anglican and American Protestant 
Episcopal Churches, and their rule of faith and practice. The 
Church of England has ever maintained, as strenuously as the 
Romish church, that the Holy Scriptures shall be received, not as 
any individual may interpret it for himself, but as it is expounded 
in the Articles and other prescribed formularies. Until a very late 
period, pains and penalties have impended over those who refused 
to subscribe to those Articles. 

§ 9. The national industry of England, during the rule of the 
Tudors, experienced great revolutions and remarkable increase and 
expansion, in spite of the unwise legislative restrictions imposed 
upon commerce and manufactures. Political and personal con¬ 
siderations also seriously interfered with trade at times, such 

as the expulsion of aH the Flemings b from Eng- 

1 ° * & b § 21 , p. 123. 

land in 1498, because the Duchess dowager of Bur- 

° c § 18 p 302 

gundy encouraged Perkin Warbeck. 0 At that time 

the merchants of London wielded vast power and wealth by 

associated efforts. They formed a league for mutual benefit, 

w hich w^as incorporated in 1505 under the title of “ The Merchant 

Adventurers of England,” whose operations were as extensive as 

the area of British commerce. The spirit of adventure was then 

rife in England and on the Continent, and Western Europe was 

contending with Italy for the coveted commerce of the East. It 

was in the reign of Henry the Seventh that the Cape of Good Hope 

w r as passed, and America was discovered d in the 

t, , T d § 35, p. 367. 

search for an ocean passage to India. 

§ 10. The increase of the foreign trade of the country from that 

time, and the wealth of the people, which commanded every 

luxury, was marvellous. It was not unusual, in the 

. e § 1, p. 308. 

early part of Henry the Eighth’s reign, e for a single 

ship to enter an English port vrith three to four thousand pieces of 


382 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 


[Book VI. 

Commerce. Ship-building. National Industry. 

cloth of gold and silver, velvets, satins, silks, and other rich stuffs. 

At about the same time the Merchant Adventurers a 
a § p. 3 . ^ England shipped for Flanders no less than forty 
thousand pieces of the plain substantial cloths of English manufac¬ 
ture. The commerce of the kingdom was carried on almost ex¬ 
clusively by foreigners settled there. But English navigators were 
usually the carriers of the merchandise, and their ships were seen 
moored upon the coasts of the four quarters of the globe. So 
early as 1580, Captain William Hawkins, father of the 

§ 40, p. o.o. a( j m i ra j b traded on the coasts of Brazil and Guinea. 

§ 11. Ship-building was carried on extensively, and so skilfully, 
too, that English shipwrights were sought after in other countries. 
Early in his reign, Henry the Eighth caused a very large war-ship, 
the Great Harry , to be built, which, with another, the Beg eat , of 
a thousand tons burden, constructed at Woolwich, in 1512, may 
be considered as the beginning of the royal navy of England. 
Henry also encouraged the merchant marine, by which his indi¬ 
vidual wealth was increased. 

§ 12. Early in Elizabeth’s reign, enlightened legislation gave a 
new impulse to the national industry. Most of the unwise restric¬ 
tions upon commerce and manufactures were removed, and a sys¬ 
tem of comparative free-trade was introduced, which caused an 
immense and immediate increase in the wealth and power of the 
kingdom. In one year after these restrictions were removed, the 
English exported, to the Netherlands alone, wool and cloth to 
the value of £2,400,000, or $12,000,000, to the great benefit of 
both countries. Antwerp received the most of these goods, and 
distributed them over Europe. In that queen’s reign, the New¬ 
foundland fisheries on the American coast became an important 
part of the national industry; and direct trade was opened with 
the East Indies. The London merchants became very wealthy and 
powerful; and one of them (Sir Thomas Gresham) built [1566] 
the magnificent Royal Exchange for the use of the merchants’ 
guild. Navigators were much of the time abroad on voyages of 
discovery, and for the extension of the area of English commerce; 
and toward the close of Elizabeth’s reign the beginning of Eng¬ 
land’s colonial system was seen in efforts such as those of 

Raleigh c to plant settlements in distant parte of the 
c § 36, p. 367. 1 

earth. 

§ 13. The manufactures of the Tudor age did not vary much 


383 


Chapter VI.] THE TUDORS. 

Manufactures. Agriculture. Fanners and their Wives. 

in kind from those of the preceding period, but in all departments 

there was greater skill observed. The workers in iron and other 

metals had become numerous, and many improvements had been 

made in the method of tannins*: leather. The manufacture of 

cloth had spread from London, and was carried on extensively in 

other cities. Silk was also manufactured, the workmen being chiefly 

French Huguenots who were driven out of France by persecution. a 

The manufacture of pins was introduced from France 

m the reign of Henry the Eighth. The first worn m 

& J & b § 40, p. 325. 

England was by his queen, Catherine Howard. b 

§ 14. Agriculture in England was vastly improved, during this 
period, in the extent and production of tillage. It was done by 
free labor. The villein class c had disappeared. The 

<• § 5, p. 164. 

yeomanry d lived in better houses than formerly. They d ^ g ^ 
were usually of the kind known to the American pio¬ 
neer as log houses, with walls of wattle and plaster, but not always 
having chimneys. The farmer slept on a straw pallet, or a flock 
mattress, with a bolster filled with chaff. His servants slept on 
straw. All dined off wooden trenchers, and ate their pottage 
with wooden spoons. The most substantial yeoman seldom had 
more than five or six shillings in his pocket. 

§ 15. Farm-servants and the poorer classes ate bread made of 
barley and rye, and sometimes of beans, peas, and oats, often mixed 
together. Only the gentry could afford wheaten bread the year 
round. 

§ 16. The housewife was a pattern of industry, or rather a pat¬ 
tern slave. She spun and wove, of wool and flax, the clothing 
worn upon the farm ; and it was her duty, according to a writer 
of the time, to “winnow all manner of corn, to make malt, to 
wash, and to make hay, shear corn, and in time of need help her 
husband fill the muck-wain or dung-cart, drive the plough, to load 
hay, corn, and such other, and to go to market and sell butter 
and pigs, fowls, or corn.” And yet, with all the industry of men, 
women, and children, and the exercise of the greatest frugality, it 
was found difficult, in the early part of the Tudor period, for the 
farmer to pay the rent for his land and tenement without selling 
a cow, for he and his servants who sat at his table consumed 
nearly all that the land produced. 

§ 17. But there was a gradual improvement in the condition of 
the rural population, notwithstanding rents in the time of Henry 


384- HISTORY OF ENGLAND. (Book VI. 


Condition of the People. Horticulture. 


Luxurious Furniture. 


the Eighth and his children’s reign had doubled. Implements 
were better, and tillage was far more productive. The farmer had 
an abundance of food generally, and he was fond of entertaining. 
The materials for good cheer may be found in the following lines 
by Tusser:— 

“ Good bread and good drink, a good fire in the hall; 

Brawn, pudding, and sauce, and good mustard withal; 

Beef, mutton, and pork, shred pies of the best; 

Pig, veal, goose, and capon, and turkey well drest; 

Cheese, apples, and nuts, jolly carols to hear, ^ 

As these in the country is counted good cheer.” 

s 18 The farmers had better houses. The wooden dishes were 
superseded by pewter ones, and feather-beds made repose easier. 
Rotation of crops made tillage more productive. In the reign of 
Elizabeth clover was introduced from the Netherlands, and in¬ 
creased the capacity of the land to feed cattle and sheep. Ewes 
were milked, and five of them were considered equal to a cow in 
value Gardens began to be cultivated in this period, and the hop 
was introduced from the Netherlands in 1524. From thence, also, 
came salads, cabbages, gooseberries, apricots, and the muskmelon, 
all of which increased the comforts of the people. Pippins were 
introduced from the same country in 1525; cherries, from France, 
in 1540; and currants, from Zante, in 1555. Almost 
a § 29 , p.320. fifty yearg ear iier, Thomas Cromwell a introduced 
b § 21, P . 123. plums from Italy . The Flemings 11 brought the rose 

and other fragrant plants. 

§ 19. Wealth fostered and gratified a growing taste for luxury 
at court and among the nobility and gentry. Dwellings, furni¬ 
ture, and dress felt the influence. The furniture was carved and 
inlaid with greater extravagance and elegance in Queen Eliza¬ 
beth’s time than ever before. Chairs were cushioned with velvet 
coverings, and beds and bedsteads were made of the costliest 
stuffs and elegant workmanship. Glass mirrors, imported from 
France, were introduced early in Elizabeth’s reign. Ornamental 
clocks were found in many houses. One may yet be seen in 
Hampton Court bearing the date of 1540. Carpets for floors 
were introduced from the East at the same period, and were soon 
made by English weavers. Turkey carpets are mentioned in the 
time of Edward the Sixth, c but they were then used 
« § 1, p. 329. for fable cove ri n g S . Until some time in Elizabeth's 
reign the floors of palaces were covered with rushes and matting. 


Cn AFTER VI.] 


THE TUDORS. 

Dress and Fashions of the Wealthy. 


385 


Knives were first made in England in 1563, and forks at the 
dinner-table were yet unknown at the time of the death of 
Elizabeth. 

§ 20. The costume of both sexes, during the Tudor age, did not 
vary much in general form, only in minor details. The mascu¬ 
line costume was most effeminate in the time of Henry the 
Seventh. a It consisted of a fine shirt of long lawn, ^ ^ 

with silk-embroidered collar and wristbands; a 
doublet, the sleeves of which were sometimes composed of two 
pieces each, fastened at the shoulder and the elbow with laces or 
points, through which the shirt protruded; and sometimes only 
slashed at the elbows. To this were added a stomacher, over 
which the doublet was laced, and petticoat; a long coat or gown, 
with hanging sleeves, and broad tum-over collars of velvet or fur; 
long stockings with two or more colors, and broad-toed shoes or 
slippers. Velvet or felt caps, with feathers, were worn. The 
feminine costume was generally graceful. Slashings were fashion¬ 
able. The laced stomacher was a prominent feature. The hair 
fell negligently down the back; and high head-dresses were seldom 
seen. 

§ 21. In the time of Henry the Eighth the fashions were more 
extravagant, and they were extremely so in the reign of Elizabeth. 
In Mary’s reign b they were less so. But the mate- b g j p 338 
rials used in the dress of both sexes were of the rich¬ 
est kind; and as the “ common people ” imitated the nobility as 
far as possible, sumptuary laws were promulgated in 1543. Crim¬ 
son or blue velvet, embroidered with silk and gold, and the richest 
damask silks, were worn. 

§ 22. The hair of men was cut short in Henry the Eighth’s time, 
by his orders, while beards and moustaches were allowed to grow 
long. The hats and caps of the men and the women were parti¬ 
cularly extravagant, yet often elegant and picturesque. The hair 
of the women was “ curled, frizzled, and crisped.” False hair 
was much worn. Queen Elizabeth wore such in the sixty-seventh 
year of her age, sometimes red, as her own was originally, and 
sometimes of other hues. Stockings of knit silk and worsted were 
first made in England in her reign. Jewelry of every description 
was worn to excess; and. perfumed gloves, bordered with silver and 
gold, were fashionable. 

§ 23. Court pastimes now assumed a character 4 between the 
17 


386 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book VI. 

Pastimes of the Court and People. Festivals. Refinement of the Table. 

masque and the pantomime, and were often conducted with mag¬ 
nificence in dresses and accessories. Music and dancing formed a 
large share of the sport. The English drama had its rise at this 
period, the mummeries of the Mysteries a having been 
a § 12 , P- 292. gucoeeded by a be tter style of performance known as 

the Moralities, in which the dialogues were carried on chiefly by 
allegorical personages. And plays, down to the time of Shake¬ 
speare, at the close of the sixteenth century, contmued to blend 
the shadows of allegory with real life. Shakespeare and his co¬ 
temporaries introduced the drama much as we have it in our day, 
but without the effective accessories of the present time. 

§ 24. The great mass of the people were still content with their 
simple pastimes, already described,* to which may be 
b § 12, P . 292. addedbull and b ear baiting and cock-fighting- 
cruel and ferocious sports—in Elizabeth’s reign, and horse-racing 
as a regular systematic amusement. Even the Puritans indulged 
in the fatter sport. Backgammon was now introduced as an in¬ 
door sport, and chess and cards held their places as favorites. 

§25. Christmas and other festivals were indulged in by all 
classes of the people. The processions, when bringing m the 
Christmas-log or May-pole, were jolly affairs for both sexes ; and 
around the plough on Plough-Monday (early in January) the 
country people had many dances. So, too, had the milkmaids 
on May-day; and the festival of St. Valentine, in February, was 
a fruitful season of love-making leading to marriage. 

§ 26. The huge joints of salted beef, platters of wood and pew¬ 
ter, and the swarms of jesters, tumblers, and harpers, seen around 
the tables of the rich in earlier times, disappeared after the Tudors 
came into power, and the more delicate entertainments of the 
French, similar to the customs of our day, prevailed. Wines, 
fruits, and confectioneries abounded. Guests washed before din¬ 
ing and used perfumes furnished by the host. The hat was gen¬ 
erally worn at the table. What the guests left was given to the 
waiters and servants, and what was then left was distributed to 
the poor who waited without the gate. . • 

§ 27. During the greater portion of the Tudor rale, learning 
was depressed rather than encouraged in England. Nobles and 
clergy were ignorant; and it was not until late in Elizabeth’s 
reign that the schools and the literature of England assumed a 
commanding attitude. These brilliant exceptions, such as Spen- 


ClIAFTER YI.] 


387 


THE TUDORS. 

Literature, Science, ancl Art. 

ser, and Shakespeare and his literary cotemporaries, have caused 
her reign to be called the literary age of England; but it is cer¬ 
tain that learning was not generally diffused, even among the 
higher classes, and among the poor scarcely at all. Not one in 
ten of the gentry could write his or her own name. The father 
of Shakespeare, an alderman of Stratford, could only make his 
mark indifferently. There were poets of eminence late in the 
sixteenth century; but the chief glory of what is commonly called 
the “Elizabethan age of English poetry” properly belongs to the 
commencement of the reign of her successor, when the produc¬ 
tions of the great dramatist and others bloomed out in greatest 
beauty and splendor. 

§ 28. The fine arts made but little progress in England during 
the time of the Tudors. The Gothic style in ecclesiastical archi¬ 
tecture, which excessive ornamentation had demoralized on the 
Continent, showed signs of decay in England at the close of the 
fifteenth century, and after the Reformation unmixed Gothic fell 
into disuse. Palatial architecture, known as the Tudor style—a 
combination of the house and castle a —prevailed; the 
best expression of which was given in the Richmond a ^ 23, P ‘ 234 ' 
palace, built by Henry the Seventh at the close of the fifteenth 
century. b Henry the Eighth had a real taste for art, 
and encouraged it by the erection of fine buildings * ^ 2 °’ P ‘ °° 7 ’ 
himself, and in inducing his nobles to do likewise. Really splen¬ 
did edifices arose in various parts of the kingdom, which command 
admiration. He also tried to induce eminent artists to come to 
England from the Continent; but only the names of Holbein, the 
Swiss painter, and Torregiano, the Florentine sculptor, appear 
eminent in England during his reign. Henry formed a collection 
of paintings, the first attempt of the kind made in England. But 
his children did not inherit his taste. 

§ 29. The only native painter of eminence of the Tudor times 
was Nicolas Hilliard, an excellent miniature painter, to whom 
Queen Elizabeth sat several times. She encouraged art only as it 
subserved her vanity. 


BOOK YII. 


THE STUARTS. 
[From 1603 to a.d. 1649.] 


CHAPTER L 

reign of James the First, [a.d. 1603 to 1625.] 

§ 1. James the Sixth of Scotland, the only son of Mary Queen of 
Scots, 11 had been nominally a king ever since he was 
§ 3, p. 358. a year old) and at tlie time of his mounting the throne 

of England he was thirty-seven yearn of age. His uncle, Mur¬ 
ray, b his grandfather, Lennox, c and a more distant kins- 
b § 17, p. 360. ma ^ Morton? in turn, held the dangerous post of 
c § is, p. 360. regentj and all came t0 violent ends. Murray and 
Lennox were assassinated, and Morton was executed for the murder 
of Darnley. d That was in 1581, when the young king 
a § 17, P . 360. had reached llis fifteenth year, and had chosen Esme 

and James Stuart, to whom he gave the titles of Duke of Lennox 
and Earl of Arran, for his favorites; but the next year saw him 
for a while a captive in the hands of the Earl of Gowrie, and his 
favorites in exile. He was soon set at liberty, and Gowrie pardoned; 
but only to be executed as soon as James was sufficiently strong 
to venture on the step, in the year 1584. 

§ 2. The rest of James’s reign in Scotland was passed hi a kind 
of tutelage, sometimes to one party, sometimes to another; for all 
the chief men of the kingdom appear to have been the “feed 
men,” as it was termed, of either Elizabeth e or of 
§ 52, p. 375. p hilip 0 f Spain/ and many clearly received bribes 
f§ 26 , p. 349. frombot fi Such being the case, James either took 
g § 39, p ‘ m little heed of the execution of his mother, e or he was 
betrayed by his ambassadors. He certainly did not suffer it to 
break off his intercourse with Elizabeth,, who, as her letters remain 
to show, sometimes advised, sometimes scolded him, as if lie was 



Chapter I.] THE STUARTS. 3S9 

King James opposed to War. Arabella Stuart. Plots against the Government. 

her subject; but through all kept him in dependence on her for a 
yearly pension, which she made less or greater, according as he 
took or neglected her advice. 

§ 3. But James was too politic to depend upon her good-will 
only. Though strongly urged by her, he never would openly quar¬ 
rel with the Spanish king, or the Pope, or even his own Catholic 
subjects, though, to please her, he sometimes spoke of them as his 
“ Spaniolized rebels.” In spite of her remonstrances, he listened 
favorably to the complaints of her Roman Catholic and Puritan 
subjects,* 1 and therefore, when he came to the English 
throne, on the death of Elizabeth [March 24, 1603], 3 § llj P ' 357 ' 
each party considered him pledged to them to mitigate the rigor 
of the laws under which they had so long suffered. 

§ 4. These expectations were entirely disappointed ; and James 
had hardly reached London [May 1], where he and his queen, 
Anne of Denmark, were crowned on the 25th of July, he as James 
the First, before a plot was formed to place his cousin, Arabella 
Stuart, on the throne. She was daughter of a younger brother of 
Darnley, James’s father. b The deviser of this was Sir 
Walter Raleigh, who, as we have seen, was a man of ^ 18 ’ P ' 3G °* 
much consequence in the time of Elizabeth, but was burdened 
with debts, and ready for any desperate measure to retrieve his 
fortunes. He and Cecil had equally striven to gain the favor of 
James, whilst in Scotland. Cecil succeeded, but Raleigh failed, 
and lost liis important post of captain of the royal guard. In 
revenge he leagued himself with Lord Cobham, the warden of 
the Cinque Ports; c Lord G-rey, a Puritan; and some 
Romish priests and gentry, and was promised help * § 10, P ' lo7 ’ 
both in men and money by the Spanish governor of the Netherlands. 
The plot was discovered, and the parties were tried and sentenced to 
death, but only the priests and one gentleman were executed. Cob- 
ham, Grey, and Raleigh were sent to the Tower, where Grey died 
in 1614. Soon after this, Raleigh was released, and Cobham was 
liberated in 1619, but died in extreme poverty shortly afterward. 

§ 5. Another plot against James was that so familiarly known 
as the Gunpowder Treason. It was the work of a few fanatical 
Romanists, who, having been deluded by the false and specious 
promises of the king, determined to revenge themselves by de¬ 
stroying not only the monarch and his parliament, but even the 
very building in which the laws against the open profession of 


390 


[Book YII. 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 


The Gun-powder Plot. 


their religion had been passed. The project appears to have ori¬ 
ginated with Robert Catesby, a Northamptonshire gentleman, and 
a descendant of the Catesby of the time of Richard 
a § s, P. 280. the Third _ a Hc h \ ld been a Protestant, but had be¬ 
come a Romanist, and had suffered severely, as a recusant, in the 
last reign. He had taken part in Essex’s insurrec- 
b§5l, p. 3io. |* on b and on f a ii ur e he opened a negotiation 

with the Spaniards, promising to join them with a body of Ro¬ 
manists if they landed at Milford-liaven. The plan had been 
favorably received, when the death of Elizabeth altered the poli¬ 
tics of the King of Spain, who had every desire to ally himself 


with her successor. 

§ 6. Undaunted by this failure, Catesby now resolved on the 
horrible Gunpowder Plot. He gained the assistance of Thomas 
Percy, a relative of the Earl of Northumberland, and of five 
other gentlemen; took Bates, a trusted servant, into his confi¬ 
dence, and obtained the paid service of Guy Fawkes, a needy 
Yorkshire gentleman in the Spanish army. By the personal labor 
of these confederates a mine under the Parliament-house was 
attempted, but before it was completed they were able to hire an 
adjoining cellar, and in this they stored twenty barrels of gun¬ 
powder. Catesby had hitherto borne most of the expense of the 
enterprise, and his funds were now exhausted. He therefore com¬ 
municated his scheme to Sir Everard Digby and three other 
gentlemen of fortune, the whole party taking an oath of secrecy 
at the hands of Henry Garnet, a Jesuit, and promising never to 
desist from their barbarous enterprise. 

§ 7. The meeting of the parliament had been fixed for Feb¬ 
ruary, 1605; but, owing to some cause not now known, it was 
deferred until the following November. At first the plotters were 


greatly disturbed at this, and they had reason, for their scheme 
was known to Sir Robert Cecil, 0 now created Earl of 
1 § 51 ’ p- 3, °- Salisbury, and holding the office of prime minister 
d § 2 , p. 3o~. ^ j am es, as his father had to Elizabeth.* 1 He, how¬ 
ever, left them in false security, and forbore to interfere with 
them until the end of October, 1605, when a letter was delivered 
to Lord Monteagle, a Romish nobleman, and brother-in-law to 
Francis Tresham, one of the conspirators, warning him not to 
attend the parliament on the 5th of the following month. A 
similar notice was probably given to the Earl of Northumberland, 


Chapter LI 


THE STUARTS. 

Fate of the Conspirators. 


391 


and the Lords Montague, Mordaunt, and Stourton, all Romanists, 
as they did not quit their country houses to attend the parliament. 
On this suspicion they were all heavily fined, and Northumber¬ 
land was imprisoned for many years. 

§ 8. The letter was submitted to the king, who professed at 
once to discover from its wording that an explosion of gun¬ 
powder was meant. Search was accordingly made, and Fawkes, 
who passed as John Johnson, a servant, was seized in the vault, 
prepared to fire the train at the proper moment, for which pur¬ 
pose his employers had left him behind, whilst they rode into 
Warwickshire to raise an insurrection there. They intended to 
seize the Princess Elizabeth, daughter of the king, a girl of ten 
years old, who resided with Lord Harrington in that county, 
make her their nominal queen, appoint a regent, and, as they 
hoped, re-establish Romanism by the help of Spain. 

§ 9. On the seizure of Fawkes the conspirators were quickly 
followed (only three more Romanists joining them), and were 
hunted to Holbeach House, in Worcestershire, where, after a fierce 
resistance, they were all either killed or captured. Fawkes was 
tortured on the rack; but, though he avowed and gloried in his 
own share in the plot, nothing could make him accuse others. 
Their guilt, however, seemed too manifest to admit of doubt, 
and, except Francis Tresham, who died in prison before he could 
be tried, and two Jesuits who escaped, all the rest suffered as 
traitors. This horrible project occasioned the passing of several 
new statutes, which made the condition of the Romanists much 
worse than before ; but, as in the time of Elizabeth, the laws were 
seldom enforced against those who could afford to bribe the 
courtiers. Even James’s queen did not disdain to sell her pro¬ 
tection, which exposed both herself and her husband to the sus¬ 
picion of not being so entirely Protestant as the 
L. ° J a § 11, P- 357. 

Puritans a desired. 

§ 10. This suspicion had much influence on the rest of James’3 
reign, though it appears not to have had any real foundation. But 
the Puritans had now the ascendency in the parliament, and they 
showed that they would not submit to the treatment that they had 
endured in the last reign. They at first regarded James as a 
friend, and some of them met him on his way to 'London, with 
what they styled their Millenary Petition,—a petition signed by a 
thousand ministers, “ all groaning under a common burden of 


392 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book VII. 

The Puritans complain. Settlements in America. Religious matters. 

human rites and ceremonies.” It was filled with complaints 
against the church, and in consequence, a conference was soon 
after held at Hampton Court, before the king, when the bishops 
replied so much to his satisfaction that he at once declared the 
Puritan grievances to be imaginary. Acting on his own experience 
of the independence of the presbyteries in Scotland, he declared 
very truly that “no bishop” meant also “no king.”. He had 
sagacity to perceive that ideas of civil liberty were intimately 
connected with those of religious liberty. “ A Scotch presbytery,’’ 
he said, “agreeth with the monarchy as God with the devil.” 
Henceforth he entirely relied upon the loyalty of the English 
church, and so much did it commend itself to him, that he some 
years afterward [1617] succeeded in re-establishing episcopal gov¬ 
ernment in his native country. 

§ 11. At about this time a successful attempt was made to 
plant an English colony in America. The English then claimed, 
by right of discovery, a belt across the continent, extending in 
width from the Cape Fear, in North Carolina, to Nova Scotia. 

This was Elizabeth’s Virginia . 8 It was divided into 
.§36, P . 367. North and gouth y irginia The nor them portion 

was granted to an association of West England men, called the 
Plymouth Company, and the southern portion was granted to resi¬ 
dents chiefly of London, and was called the London Company. 
The latter sent out a company of emigrants near the close of 1606. 
They sailed up the Powhatan River in April, 1607, and on its 
banks began the construction of a village. This was called 
Jamestown, in honor of the king, and the noble stream was called 
the James River. There, after great trials, a permanent settlement 
was made and the Virginia colony was established. 

§ 12. Archbishop Whitgift died very shortly after the Hampton 
Court conference, and was succeeded by Bancroft, Bishop of Lon¬ 
don, who followed his predecessor’s policy of restraining the Puri¬ 
tans. Bancroft was succeeded in 1610 by Abbot, a man who 
favored them, and at the same time rendered the church unpopu¬ 
lar by his harsh dealing with causes in the High Commission 
Court. b In 1621, Abbot had the misfortune to kill a 

b § 6, p. 354. man ^ ac cident whilst hunting, and though the king 
readily pardoned him, declaring that “ an angel might have mis¬ 
carried in such sort,” he was in reality suspended from office, as 
William Laud and other clergymen (of whom we shall hear more 


THE STUARTS. 


393 


Chapter I.] 


The Dutch exasperated. The British Flog dishonored. 

in the next reign), who hated him because he was tolerant to the 
Puritans, absolutely refused to receive consecration from “ hands 
soiled with blood.” 

§ 13. James had always, whilst King only of Scotland, refused 
to quarrel with Spain, and one of his earliest cares was to establish 
a peace between that country and England. He had no liking for 
the Dutch, considering successful republicans “an ill example for 
a monarch to cherish,” and when they declined to lay down their 
arms at his desire he made peace without them. They complained 
loudly and justly of being deserted, and were henceforward his 
bitter enemies. The English sailors who served with them were 
recalled. Finding little employment at home, many of them be¬ 
came pirates, and joining with Moors and Algerines, they did great 
damage along the English and Irish coasts. 

§ 14. The Dutch made a peace with the Spaniards in 1609, and 
then at once commenced a privateering warfare with England. 
They endeavored to deprive the English alike of the East India 
trade and of the northern whale fishery, never scrupling to use 
force "whenever they found themselves the strongest. At the same 
time they themselves fished on the English coasts without license, 
and terribly offended the old sea-captains of Elizabeth’s reign by 
refusing to salute the king’s ships when met with in the narrow seas. 
This “ honor of the flag,” as it was termed, had been the constant 
usage of all foreign nations for at least 300 years, and James 
became unpopular for not at once making it a cause of war. He, 
however, bore for his motto “Beat! pacifici” (Blessed are the 
peacemakers), and until near the close of his reign his only wars 
were with the House of Commons, which were angry enough in 
words, but of which the full significance only appeared in the time 
of his successor. 

§ 15. The first of these quarrels occurred in the year 1610, and 

it arose on a question of money. The king made his eldest son, 

Henry, a knight, 1 and, in accordance with the old feudal custom, 

he claimed a sum of money, termed an aid* from his 

J a § 8, p. 97. 

subjects to pay the expense of the ceremony. The 

sum w T as only a little over £20,000; but feudal ideas had now lost 


i The king, from the moment when he received the news of his accession to the Eng¬ 
lish crown, seemed to have an almost insane passion for creating knights. He made 
large numbers of them while on his way to London to receive the crown, without 
much regard to their previous condition. 

17* 


394 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book VII. 

Cresarism advocated. The King Defied. His Divine Eight to rule. 

their force, and it was very unwillingly paid. To make matters 
worse, one Dr. Cowell just about this time published a book called 
“The Interpreter,” in which he claimed absolute power for the 
king, and when the Commons complained of this, James told them 
that it was seditious to inquire what a king might do by virtue of 
his prerogative, though in law his actions were limited. The 
Commons were not satisfied with this, and James could only pre¬ 
vent their prosecuting the doctor by dissolving them. Three 
years elapsed before they again met; and then they soon incurred 
the royal displeasure by refusing to grant the king supplies of 
money to support his extravagance, and were dismissed [July 16, 
1614] without having passed a single act, from which circumstance 
they were termed the Addled Parliament. But they had set the 
good example of refusing to grant supplies before a long list of 
grievances was considered. They had openly questioned many 
branches of the royal prerogative that had never been availed 
before, and they had threatened to impeach Williams, Bishop of 
Lincoln, who charged them with disloyalty. 

§ 16. The king, thus left without money, resorted to a “ benevo¬ 
lence,” a but this was only a temporary relief. Oliver 
a § is, P . 272. gt John ^ a Wiltshire gentleman, not merely refused 
to contribute, but addressed a letter to the Mayor of Marlborough, 
in which he maintained that such a mode of raising money was 
contrary alike to law, reason, and religion. He was sent to the 
Tower, fined £5,000 by the Star-chamber b for “re- 
<* § 5, p. 206. Meeting on the king’s proceedings,” and ordered to 
be imprisoned for life, but was soon set at liberty. The Puritans, 
however, were not daunted by this severity. They very generally 
declined to pay, and taking their tone from Peachum, one of their 
ministers, they declared, “ Silver and gold have we none, but we 
will pray for the king.” 

§ 17. But though the topic of the divine right of kings to rule® 
was so distasteful to the parliament, where the repub- 
s ’ p ' ' lican ideas of the early Puritans had an influence as 
yet unavowed, both writers and preachers maintained it, and James 
was not backward in supporting his champions. One of these 
was Dr. Montagu, afterwards Bishop of Chichester (a supple in¬ 
strument of the king on all occasions), who, when charged by the 
Commons, in 1624, with publishing false doctrine, appealed for 
protection to the king, in a work whose very title “Appello 


THE STUARTS. 


395 


Chapter I.] 


James and his Scotch Friends. Fate of Arabella Stuart. 

Csesarem,” bitterly offended the Puritans, as reviving the doctrine 
which Dr. Cowell had published many years before. a a g 15 p 393 
James took the same course now as then, of stopping 
all proceedings by dismissing the parliament. 

§ 18. James, when in Scotland, was always surrounded by crafty 
favorites, who easily prevailed over his naturally indolent temper, 
which made him but too ready to be relieved of all the cares and 
labors of government, though no one had higher ideas of the 
power and dignity of a king than he had . 1 These people followed 
him into England in such crowds, and were so lavishly rewarded 
with offices and honors as to give deep offence to his English sub¬ 
jects, one of whom announced his discovery of a new “ Art of 
Memory,” as necessary for the remembering of the titles of the 
Scotchmen suddenly grown rich and great. Among these was 
Robert Carr, the younger son of a Scottish border family that had 
•suffered in the cause of Queen Mary, and on him ^ p 3Q1< 
James heaped every office and honor, eventually 
creating him Earl of Somerset; but in a few years he was con¬ 
victed of murder, and died in poverty. Carr was succeeded in 
the king’s regard by an English favorite, George Yilliers, for whom 
James displayed as much fondness as for his own son. Strangely 
enough, Yilliers, who was soon created Duke of Buckingham, was 
equally a favorite with Prince Charles, and, by his bad example 
and advice, greatly conduced to his ruin. 

§ 19. Raleigh’s conspiracy,® as we have seen, had been intended 
to place on the throne Arabella Stuart; but as she was c ^ 4 p 339 
believed not to have been cognizant of the plot, she 
retained the king’s favor, though, as a measure of precaution, it 
was resolved to prevent her marriage, lest her husband should urge 
her claims to the crown, which some lawyers considered better than 
James’s. Several foreign suitors were thus dismissed; but in 1611 


1 In a discourse before both Houses of Parliament, in 1G10, James blasphemously 
compared kingship with Deityship. He told them that kings were justly called gods, 
for they exercise a resemblance of Divine power on earth. He said God could make or 
unmake at his pleasure, and like power was given to kings, whose subjects had no 
higher duty to perform than absolute obedience to the sovereign’s will; and that to 
the king, as to God, were due the affections of the soul and services of the body, and 
subjects had no right to question the judgment or the will of the monarch. These 
pretensions were made more ridiculous by the personal deformity and filthiness of 
James, and the meanness and unmanliness of his character as a shameless liar, a false 
friend, and addicted to contemptible habits and associations. 


396 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book YII. 

The Elector Palatine. War with Spain. Raleigh beheaded. Parliament. 

the unhappy woman clandestinely united herself to William Sey¬ 
mour, Lord Beauchamp, and endeavored to escape with him to the 
Continent. She was captured and confined in the Tower, where 
she died a lunatic, in September, 1615, a victim to the jealous fears 
of the infamous king. 

§ 20. In November, 1612, Henry, the king’s eldest son, died, and 
soon afterward [a.d. 1618] his daughter Elizabeth was married to 
Frederick the Fifth, the Elector Palatine, a German prince of small 
influence or capacity, but whose proceedings had important results 
for England. In 1618 the Protestants of Bohemia offered the 
Elector their crown, which he accepted. The result was that he 
soon lost it, and even his paternal States; and James found him¬ 
self, sorely against his will, forced to declare war with Spain 
[a.d. 1624], a power whose friendship he valued above all things, 
and to preserve which he had, some years before, committed a 
cruel act that must always bear heavily on his memory. 

§ 21. This was the execution of Sir Walter Raleigh, a who, after 
more than twelve years’ imprisonment in the Tower, 
a § 36, p. 3G(. k een ge j. and proceeded to Guiana, in 

South America, where he professed he had discovered a gold mine 
many years before. He did not reach the mine, but he came into 
conflict with the Spaniards, lost his son and many of his associates, 
and on his return to England was executed on his sentence passed 
in the year 1603. b Raleigh was a proud, bad man, 
b § 4, p. o89. k e was universally considered as sacrificed to the 
king’s wish to procure a Spanish princess as the wife of his son 
Charles, now Prince of Wales; and as the people in general would 
have preferred any other alliance to this, he was regarded as 
almost a martyr. 

§ 22. The king’s evident leaning to the kings of France and 
Spain, and his coolness to the foreign Protestants, gave great offence 
to the parliament, and they showed their displeasure by refusing 
supplies, at the same time [a.d. 1621] that they urged him to 
plunge into war in support of the Elector Palatine.® 
c § 20, p. 3 6. j ameg censure( j their proceedings as the work of 
“fiery, popular, and turbulent spirits,” to which they replied by 
inserting in their journals a declaration that they had the right of 
discussing all subjects, in such order as they might think proper, 
and asserting that they were not responsible to him for their con¬ 
duct. The king sent for the book, tore out the obnoxious entry 


Chapter I.] THE STUARTS. 397 

Legislators banished. Affairs in Ireland. New Order of Knighthood. 

with his own hand, and suspended their sittings. The parliament 
was dissolved soon afterward, when Sir Edward Coke (an eminent 
lawyer and violent and unprincipled man) and Pym, a distinguished 
orator, were imprisoned. Several other obnoxious members were 
in reality banished, being obliged to repair to Ireland against their 
will, under pretence of the king’s service, which demanded an 
inquiry on the spot as to a plan for the pacification of that country 
that had lately been introduced. 

§ 23. The number of English settlers in Ireland had never been 
large enough to complete the conquest of the island, and plans had 
often been devised to remedy the defect. One, of the time of 
Henry the Eighth, was, to settle one family from every parish in 
England in the land, but this was never attempted. Henry had 
contented himself with taking the style of king instead of lord, a 
and he prevailed on several of the Irish chieftains to 
assume English titles; but this had no effect, and the a ^ p ' 141, 
land continued “so Irish, and so poor,” all through the time of the 
Tudors. At length, when James came to the throne, the Lord Dep¬ 
uty Mount joy, one of Elizabeth’s ofiicials, had broken the power 
of the natives. Soon afterward the Earls of Tyrone and Tyrconnel 
(descendants of Henry’s peers) abandoned the hopeless struggle 
and fled to Spain. The greater part of the north of Ireland, called 
Ulster, thus became forfeited to the crown, and it was resolved to 
colonize it with English or Scotch Protestants in a regular manner. 

§ 24. To raise funds for this political and religious propagand- 
ism, a new order of hereditary knighthood, called Baronets, was 
created, the 200 gentlemen who received the title paying the sum 
of £1,100 each for the support of thirty foot-soldiers for two years 
to protect the colonists. The lands were to be divided into estates 
of from 1,000 to 2,000 acres, suitable buildings were to be erected, 
and certain towns were to be built. A large tract of country was 
also granted to the citizens of London, which they still possess. 
But the conditions of the “plantation” were not honestly carried 
out. Some parties by fraud obtained ten times their allotted share 
of land. Most of them neglected the building and planting, and 
many of them allowed the natives to remain, taking a small rent 
from them, and saving the expense of the settlers that they were 
bound to furnish. Into these abuses the unwilling commissioners 
nad to inquire; but they did their work so carelessly that no good 
came of it. 


398 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book VII. 

War between the King and Parliament. Person and Character of the King. 

§ 25. From this time forward the war between James and his 
parliaments raged without intermission. They resented his treat¬ 
ment of their mernbt rs, and in return attacked all his favorites. 
The people now began to appear as a power in the State, and the 
king dared not attempt the ferocious measures of the fagot and 
the block, employed by his predecessors in carrying out the royal 
will. It had long been the custom to grant the monopoly of deal¬ 
ing in various articles to certain persons, who, of course, paid a 
sum to the crown for the privilege; this was now declared illegal, 
and some of the chief offenders were punished. The treasurer, 
Lord Middlesex, was impeached, as the chancellor, Sir Francis 
Bacon, 1 had been before him. A marriage treaty with Spain was 
broken off, and war was declared instead; and at last a German 
leader, Count Mansfeldt, was allowed to raise a body of 12,000 
men for the service of the Elector Palatine. They were hastily 
embarked in crowded ships, and lost full half their number by 
sickness, whilst the rest were so enfeebled that they never could 
take the field. This misfortune had a great effect on the indolent, 
peace-loving king, whose health had been lost by indulgence in in¬ 
temperate eating and drinking, and who died very shortly afterward 
[March 27, 1625], bitterly lamenting that he had yielded to the 
persuasions of evil councillors, and had gone to war in his old age. 

§ 26. James, though the child of parents remarkable for personal 
beauty, was singularly deficient in comeliness and dignity. He 
turned away his eyes half in fear from a naked sword; and though 
a constant hunter, was so bad a rider as to provoke the ill-con¬ 
cealed contempt of his court. His love for idle show consumed 
his revenues and involved him in debt. The necessary expenses 
of the government were neglected altogether, soldiers and sailors 
remaining unpaid, and ships made useless for want of stores, whilst 
vast sums were wasted on shows and pageants. He was the em¬ 
bodiment of an egotist, and claimed to be wise and learned be¬ 
yond all of his cotemporaries in church and State. He was, both 
in public and private, an ill-mannered, vulgar, and contemptible 
character. His learning is unquestionable. The present transla¬ 
tion of the Bible owes much to his encouragement. He appears 
to have been sincerely desirous of promoting the union and conse- 


1 Bacon (Lord Verulam) was a courtier all his life. Pope long afterward described 
him as— 

“The greatest, wisest, meanest of mankind.” 



THE STUARTS. 


399 


Chapter I.] 

England debased by King James. 


The people despise him. 


quent welfare of all Ms kingdoms. But it was Ms misfortune that 
he was no wiser than other rulers of his time, and that he failed to 
see that the time had passed away for irresponsible government in 
England. The tyranny of the Tudors had made every one impa¬ 
tient of authority, and he had not their force of character to com¬ 
pel obedience. On the contrary, he one day irritated his parlia¬ 
ment by his extravagant pretensions of setting his prerogative 
above the law, and on the next gave way to some equally extrava¬ 
gant claim on their part. He thus prepared a state of things that 
inevitably led to the ruin of Ms successor. 

§ 27. The influence of England sank greatly in the time of 
James. He professed a profound knowledge of what he styled 
“kingcraft,” but he left the actual management of affairs to his 
ministers and his favorites, being so devoted to cockfighting, bear- 
baiting, and other coarse amusements, as well as the ordinary field 
sports, as to say that rather than sit a day at the council-table he 
would go back to Scotland. All his reading and writing was 
devoted to establishing the fact that he ruled by divine right and 
was above all law; but he had not the men of Elizabeth’s or 
Henry’s time to deal with, and his learned Latin speeches had no 
more effect than his rude English ones in persuading the House of 
Commons that he was in the right. They, on the contrary, were 
bent on showing that they w T ere independent, and had the resolu¬ 
tion to act up to their profession. Hence it is no wonder that, 
after the first civil greeting to their new sovereign, their manner 
changed, and mutual distrust and aversion grew up instead. 

§ 28. The persecutors of the Puritans in England caused a 
movement in James’s reign which had a most important influence 
upon the future condition of the realm. Several of the Puritan 
ministers and their congregations fled to Holland, where there was 
absolute freedom of conscience. They regarded themselves as 
pilgrims, and in the year 1620, a company of them left Delftshaven 
for America, there to make a settlement in North Virginia, by per¬ 
mission of the Plymouth Company.* 1 After touch a ^ 1;I p 392 
ing England and encountering perils at sea, a hun¬ 
dred men, women, and children crossed the Atlantic, landed on 
the coast of what is now Massachusetts, from a small vessel called 
the May-flower, and there, in the midst of December snows, planted 
a settlement and called it New Plymouth. This was the pioneer of 
those marvellous emigration movements during the next reign. 


400 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 


[Book VIL 

Accession of Charles the First. His Queen. His Embarrassments. 


CHAPTER n. 

reign of Charles the First, [a.d. 1625 to 1649.] 

§ 1. Fifteen minutes after James the First expired, Prince 
Charles, his eldest surviving son, was proclaimed King Charles the 
First. On the first of May [1625], when in the twenty-fifth year of 
his age, he was married by proxy, at Paris, to Henrietta Maria, 
the sister of Louis the Thirteenth of France. George Yilliers, Duke 
of Buckingham, the bold and unscrupulous courtiei 

H g p ggg o ' a 

* ' of King James, 1 acted in the young king’s stead. 

He took the royal bride to England, where Charles met her, 
at Dover Castle, on the 28th of June. He had, two yearn before, 
made a journey into Spain, accompanied by his favorite Bucking¬ 
ham, with the view of espousing a Spanish princess, and to gain 
the consent of her father and the Pope he had agreed to many 
provisions in favor of the Romanists in England. The match 
was broken off, but the French king, of course, would not hear 
of worse terms; and accordingly the beautiful little black-eyed 
Henrietta 1 brought with her a train of priests and foreign atten¬ 
dants, who conducted themselves so unwisely and offensively that 
Charles was soon obliged to send them back, but not before they 
had done much mischief, and laid the foundation of more in pro¬ 
ducing public discontent. 

§ 2. Few monarchs have found themselves in so embarrassing a 
position as Charles did on his accession. The preceding parlia¬ 
ment had granted £800,000 for the war against Spain, a sum 
notoriously insufficient; but their successors absolutely refused to 
grant any more until they had a full account of how this sum had 
been spent, and had obtained the redress of many grievances. 

The chief of these was Dr. Montagu’s “ Appello Cae- 

b § 17 P 394. ° 11 

sarem,” b which they were resolved should not go un¬ 
punished, so hostile was it to the supreme authority of the parlia¬ 
ment, which it was their aim to establish. They censured its 
author, and held him to bail, and not content with this, they 
opened so long a list of businesses to precede supply, that it was 

1 She was very small in stature, with a light and flexible figure. Her eyes were pierc¬ 
ing black. Her face was sweet in expression, except when she frowned. “I suppose 
nobody but a queen could put on such a scowl,” said one of her attendants. 


Chapter II.] THE STUARTS. 401 

The Parliament refuses Supplies. The King makes Loans. War with Spain. 

evident they meant not to grant anything. The king in vain 
offered to call them together again in the winter to discuss their 
griefs, if they would only furnish money for the fleet and army 
that was in preparation against Spain, and which would be de¬ 
layed to a dangerous time of the year if it waited until their com¬ 
plaints were all discussed. Nothing would move them, and at 
last [Aug. 12, 1625] the king dismissed them in anger, by which 
he gave them a fatal advantage, as they had not even voted the 
“tonnage and poundage” duties, which had been, as a matter of 
course, granted to each king in his very first parliament, and for 
the term of his life, ever since the time of Edward 
the Third.* a § 1 , p. 205. 

§ 3. The king, however, felt himself committed to the war with 
Spain, and he resolved to proceed. Loans of money were pro¬ 
cured from all classes, and at last, in October, 1625, the expedition 
was sent out, hoping to intercept the Spanish treasure-ships and to 
capture Cadiz. It had been delayed to this late season of the year 
by the refusal of the supplies, and the Spaniards had so improved 
the time by fortifying Cadiz that it could effect nothing. The 
leader w r as a new-made peer, Edward Cecil, a grandson of Lord 
Burleigh, b who, though he had been long employed 
in the Dutch wars, now proved so incompetent that 
he received the nickname of “ General Sitstill .” The troops re¬ 
turned in miserable condition about Christmas, and were kept in 
the western counties, partly because an attack, was feared from 
the Spaniards, but more because there was no money to pay 
and discharge them. The poor creatures became disorderly, the 
Londoners and Essex men being noted as the most violent, 
and to curb them, martial law was proclaimed, and some of 
them were executed. Others formed a large part of companies 
of emigrants then going to Virginia. The martial law was pro¬ 
fessedly intended to protect the country people, but when the 
new parliament met [Feb. 6, 1626] it was vehemently exclaimed 
against as only the first step to placing all men’s goods and lives 
at the king’s disposal. 

§ 4. The Commons at once began to complain of the conduct of 
the late expedition, and summoned, its leaders to appear before 
them. The king forbade them to attend. Next they 
proceeded to impeach Buckingham,® charging him 
with great abuses in his office of Lord High Admiral to which 


" § 20, p. 361. 


! § 1, p. 400. 


402 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 


[Book YII. 


Buckingham Impeached. The King’s Usurpations. War with France and Spain. 

James had elevated this special favorite, and even insinuating that 
he had poisoned King James. The king, taught by his father 
most thoroughly those doctrinal lessons about the divine right of 
kings, sent Sir Dudley Digges and Sir John Eliot, the managers 
of the impeachment, to the Tower, and said to the Commons: “I 
will not allow any of my servants to be questioned among you, 
much less such as are of eminent place, and near unto me.” The 
House then refused to proceed with any business until their mem¬ 
bers were released, and the king gave way. Buckingham made a 
kind of answer to the various charges, but this did not satisfy the 
Commons. They petitioned the king to remove him from his 
councils, and on his refusal they remonstrated so loudly that they 
•were suddenly dismissed [June 15, 1625], leaving all business in 
confusion, and without having granted the needful supplies for 
the ordinary government. 

§ 5. Charles’s advisers unfortunately maintained that this was a 
case of necessity, and that as the Commons had neglected their 
duty of providing for it, he was justified in raising money inde¬ 
pendently of them. He accordingly ordered the tonnage and 
poundage duties a to be levied as if they had been 
formally granted, compounded with recusants for 


a § 2, P- 400. 
» § 6, p. 279. 


‘ § 1, p. 400. 


sums of money, required loans and “ benevolences,” b 
and seized the goods of those who refused, besides imprisoning 
the more refractory, or sending them to serve at sea. By these 
means a new fleet was got together, for there was now war with 
France as well as with Spain, in consequence of the dismissal of 
the queen’s attendants.® But the Earl of Denbigh, 
the admiral, proved either incompetent or dishonest, 
and suffered many English vessels to be captured. As some of 
these vessels belonged to members of the late parliament, the suf¬ 
ferers scrupled not to say that this was intentionally done. 

§ 6. At this time [a.d. 1627], Cardinal Richelieu, who really 
governed France, laid siege to La Rochelle, the stronghold of the 
French Protestants. Their case greatly interested the Puritan 
party, and at their desire a fleet was despatched to their relief. 
The inhabitants of La Rochelle, however, distrusted its com¬ 
mander, Buckingham, and refused to admit him into the town. 
He therefore landed on the adjacent Isle of Rhe, and besieged the 
citadel, but was soon obliged to retire with great loss. Rochelle 
held out for a while, but was at last taken, when the power of the 


Chapter II.] THE STUARTS. 403 

The Autocracy of the King proclaimed. Contentions with Parliament. 

Huguenots was totally broken, an event very displeasing to the 
Puritans, one of whom published an offensive book called “ Zion’s 
Plea against the Prelates,” which he described on the title-page as 
“printed in the year and month wherein Rochelle was lost.” 

§ 7. The failure of Buckingham’s expedition, into the cause of 
which no inquiry was permitted by the favorite, caused a great 
clamor; but this was as nothing to what followed shortly after, 
when five of the gentlemen who had been imprisoned for refusing 
loans a applied to the courts for release. The judges ^ g ^ 
deliberately affirmed that a special mandate from the 
king was a sufficient reason for their detention. This was an open 
denial of one of the most important provisions of Magna Charta, 
that “ no penalty shall be laid on any man, but by the judgment of 
his peers and according to law,” b and was resented 

b s i7 s p . ico. 

as a declaration that the liberty and the property of 
the subject were absolutely dependent on the royal will. Such a 
doctrine had been held by some of the court preachers, and had 
been censured in parliament; and it caused very great alarm and 
• indignation to find it upheld by the judges of the land. 

§ 8. These feelings were at their height when the third parlia¬ 
ment of a reign of only three years assembled [a.d. 1628]. Among 
its members were several gentlemen who had suffered for refusing 
the forced loan, and no time was lost in passing votes affirming 
the illegality of imprisonment without cause fully shown, and of 
taxes levied without the authority of parliament. To prevent such 
proceedings in future, they drew up a Petition of Rights, affirming 
their illegality, which the king long declined to agree to, desiring 
them instead to trust to his royal word that he would in future 
observe the laws, and confessing that Magna Charta and the sta¬ 
tutes confirming it were still in force. After causing reasonable 
doubts of his sincerity by his objections and delays, Charles gave 
way, and the petition became law. 

§ 9. The Commons followed up their victory by praying for the re¬ 
moval of Buckingham, and accusing the bishops of popery. The king 
now openly defied them, by ordering all proceedings against Buck¬ 
ingham to cease, “being,” he said, “persuaded of his innocency.” 
He also granted special marks of favor to some of his chaplains 
who had preached loudly in favor of his prerogative. Among 
these was Montagu, who was made Bishop of Chichester, and 
Main waring, Dean of Worcester, and afterwards Bishop of St. 


404 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 


[Book VII. 

Murder of Buckingham. Oliver Cromwell. Violence in Parliament. 

David’s. The king declared he could not and would not go with¬ 
out tonnage and poundage, though they still neglected to grant 
it to him; and to silence their remonstrances he adjourned them 
very soon afterward. In the course of the same summer [1628] 
Buckingham was murdered by John Felton, a gentleman of birth 
and education, who, though he had some private grievance, stated 
that he would never have killed the duke but for the complaints 
of the Commons against him; and henceforth the king looked on 
them with increased suspicion and aversion, for he felt that in 
losing Buckingham he had parted with the right arm of his 
power. 

§ 10. In the following year [a.d. 1629] the parliament again met, 
but they were allowed to sit only a short time, as they pursued the 
same course as before. They absolutely refused to grant supplies 
until they had discussed their grievances in religion, which ranged 
from favor shown to Romish recusants to the late promotions of 
court chaplains; and one member, Oliver Cromwell, then obscure, 
though afterwards well known, declaimed loudly against Neile, 
Bishop of Winchester, as an encourager of popery. Cromwell was 
the son of Robert Cromwell, of Huntingdon, and was bom there, 
April 25, 1599. At the age of seventeen he was sent to the Uni¬ 
versity of Cambridge, but did not long remain there. He married 
early, and settled at Huntingdon, where, for a while, he car¬ 
ried on the business of a brewer; but on receiving a handsome 
legacy from an uncle, he quitted his trade, and became the lessee 
of some church lands. He was of the straitest sect of the Puri¬ 
tans, and would have gone to New England,* 1 as the 
»§ 28 , p.. . coim £ r y eag £ t] ie Hudson River was called, with 
his kinsman Hampden, and their families, had they not been pre¬ 
vented. On this, his first appearance in parliament, he provoked 
remark by the plainness of his dress, and the inelegance of his 
manners. From the time that the civil war broke out, his history 
is part of the history of the country, as will be seen hereafter. 

§ 11. At last the difficulties between the king and parlia¬ 
ment were brought to a crisis. Sir John Finch, the speaker, 
refused to put the question, that the seizing of goods for tonnage 
and poundage was a breach of privilege; and he was, in effect, 
deposed from his office. When the question was again raised he 
stated that he had orders to adjourn the house; upon which the 
door was locked, the keys were brought up and laid before him on 



Chapter II.J THE STUARTS. 405 

Parliament dispensed with. The King’s mistake*. 

the table, and he was forcibly held in the chair by Sir John Eliot a 
and others, whilst a resolution was read declaring all 
innovators in religion, and all who either levied or ^ 4 ’ P ’ 401 ’ 
paid tonnage and poundage not granted by parliament, to be ene¬ 
mies to the kingdom. 

§12. In a week after this violent scene the king dissolved the 
parliament; and in his speech in the House of Lords he said that this 
w T as owing to “the seditious carriage of some vipers, members of 
the lower house.” He followed this up by a declaration justifying 
his proceedings, and a proclamation which was understood to im¬ 
ply that he would govern without parliaments for the future. This, 
according to the principles of divine right that Charles had im¬ 
bibed from his father, b was natural enough. He b ig ^ 
considered himself as the source of power, and re- ’ P ’ 
sponsible to God only for his actions, and he regarded parliaments 
as they had been regarded three hundred years before, merely as 
means to raise money. Hence, if they failed in this function, and 
still more if they aspired to a voice in the direction of affairs, 
they were to be laid aside, and “other councils” substituted. He 
saw nothing of the momentous change that the past three hundred 
years had produced, whereby wealthy burgesses and country gen¬ 
tlemen, representing the people, had now become that great council 
of the nation which the peers had once been, and that they were 
far more than a match for the new nobles who had sprung up 
under the Tudors, and had no other property than the spoils of 
the church. 0 In a fatal hour he tried to carry out his 

J c § 35 ) p. 322. 

principles, and for a while he succeeded. But in the 
end it appeared that he and his “other councillors” had made a 
fatal mistake, and that the parliament were more able to govern 
without him than he without a parliament. For a while, however, 
the new policy seemed to succeed, and England remained at peace 
while the rest of Europe was convulsed by war between the Ro¬ 
man Catholic and Protestant States. 

§ 13. On the dissolution of the last parliament, several of its 
more prominent members were imprisoned on a charge of con¬ 
spiring to sow discord between the king and his people, and 
others were gained over by titles and offices. The most eminent 
of the latter was a Yorkshire gentleman, Sir Thomas Wentworth, 
a man of great resolution and enterprise, who was soon made a 
peer, then President of the Council of the North, and afterwards 


406 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book VII. 

Wentworth and Laud. Oppression by the Church and State. 

Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland. In both posts he carried out what 
he termed a “ thorough ” policy—that is to say, made law and 
justice give place to whatever might forward the king’s service 
for the time being. He thus became very unpopular, 
“ § 22, p ' 396 ‘ and Pym, a once his fellow-representative in parlia¬ 
ment, said to him, “ You have left us, but we will not leave you 
whilst you have a head on your shoulders.” Although many 
years elapsed first, Pym kept his word. 

§ 14. Quite as active a spirit as Wentworth’s was found in Wil¬ 
liam Laud, now bishop of London, who set himself to work with 
more zeal than discretion to find a remedy for the hostility of 
the Puritans to the hierarchy. He so misunderstood the spirit of 
the time that he thought to serve the church and the king alike 
by taking an active part in the business of the State, and indu¬ 
cing other bishops to do the same. He was one who had declined 
to receive consecration from Abbot. b That austere 
b § 12, p. 392. p re j a £ e k e i n g now a g a i n i n disgrace at court, through 

refusing to license a “ high-prerogative sermon,” 1 Laud was in 
reality at the head of the church, and he took such a prominent 
part at the council-table also, that all the oppressive measures 
passed there were popularly asciibed to him, though unjustly in 
some instances, as records remain to show. When he became 
Archbishop of Canterbury, and so the Primate of England [a.d. 
1633], he dealt with a high hand with the nonconformists of all 
classes, and thus earned such extreme hatred from them that he 
was accused of every imaginable delinquency, and was styled 
“the Pope of Canterbury” or “the servant of the devil” when 
he escaped worse appellations. 

§ 15. Laud’s hatred of the Puritans was intense and sincere, 
and he employed all his power in Church and State in the hope¬ 
less task of reducing them to conformity. He introduced many 
peculiarities of the ritual of the Roman Catholic Church, espe¬ 
cially in the communion service, into his own cathedral, and tried 
to force this ritualism upon others. He was an execrable in¬ 
quisitor, and was ready to punish anything repugnant to his 
ideas of order in public worship; and men like Bishop Williams, 


1 Such was the name given to the discourses of Dr. Sibthorp, Dr. Maimvaring, and 
others, who maintained that the authority of the parliament was not necessary for the 
raising of taxes, and that the slow deliberations of such assomblieB were a hindrance 
to the designs of princes. 


Chapter II.] 


THE STUARTS. 


407 


Laud and the Puritans. 


• § 6, p. 331. 


Struggles for Power. Dutch Privateers. 

of Lincoln, were sent to the Tower because they opposed him. 
He tried to reduce the descendants of the foreign 
settlers a to conformity, with the plea that by non¬ 
conformity they dishonored the church, and by their proximity to 
the sea-coast held dangerous communications with foreigners. 
He declared that no State could with safety allow such a con¬ 
dition of things. As far as he dared he persecuted the non¬ 
conformists, and earned for himself and a few prelates like Mon¬ 
tague b an unenviable fame as an enemy to civil 

j J *> § 17, p. 394. 

and religious liberty. 

§ 16. For several years from the accession of Laud to the pri¬ 
macy, the most prominent feature in English history presents the 
struggle for power between the crown and the people. Charles 
vehemently asserted, the royal prerogative, based upon divine right, 
and claimed absolute sovereignty, while parliament as vehemently 
asserted the supremacy of the people. The consequence was that 
the king endeavored for a long time to act without a parliament; 
and for the purpose of raising money he made a forced loan of 
what was called “ship-money,” and revived a custom of Henry 
the Eighth, which allows a subject to pay for the privilege of 
declining the honor of knighthood. This scheme for extortion 
was cunningly devised. All persons with an income of £40 a 
year from land were bound to present themselves for knighthood, 
and when so honored they had to pay a tax of thirty shillings for 
every twenty shillings paid by the untitled gentry. The subject 
was allowed to pay a certain sum to avoid the honor and the bur¬ 
densome tax. In 1631, Oliver Cromwell 0 paid £10 
as such commutation-fee; and that year the king so ^ 3 °’ P ‘ 4 ° 4 ' 
raised £130,000, by which the public revenue was diminished. 

§ 17. It has been mentioned already how the Dutch piivateers 
conducted themselves. They and the Puritan party had much in 
common as lovers of liberty; and as the design of the ship-money 
was to raise a fleet that should be chiefly employed to curb the 
Hollanders, the Puritans threw every possible obstacle in the way. 
The government, however, assuming that both the honor and the 
safety of England were concerned, made this, “the king’s great 
business,” their chief concern. 

§ 18. Hoy, the attorney-general, once a vehement parliament- 
man, but now a courtier, drew up the writ according to ancient 
precedents, which required the various ports of the kingdom to 


408 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 


[Book VII. 

Ship-money fleet. Taxation resisted. Doings of the British fleet. 

raise about £100,000 for the fitting out of a fleet; but lest this 
should prove too burdensome, the maritime counties were soon 
after directed to assist them. Tliis sum was levied in the year 
1634 without any particular opposition, and the building of 
several noble ships was commenced with it. One of them, arro¬ 
gantly called “ the Sovereign of the Seas,” was long after known 
as the finest “ship-roval” in the world. 

§ 19. The sum that the ship-money would yield, if confined to 
the coasts, was soon seen to be insufficient, and accordingly in Au¬ 
gust, 1635, a new writ was issued, extending the tax to the whole 
country, on the ground that it was for a matter of national concern. 
This it was thought would produce about £220,000, with which 
forty-five ships, fully manned, equipped, and stored for six months, 
could be provided; and they were directed to be ready for sea in 
Portsmouth Harbor on the 1st of May, 1636. The Dutch, who had 
of late been especially active on the English coasts, capturing 
Spanish vessels in English harbors, and even landing and march¬ 
ing inland in pursuit of their crews, now bestirred themselves to 
some purpose, and found instruments ready to their hands in the 
disaffected Puritans all over the country. The levying of the tax 
in the inland shires was violently opposed where attempted; but 
* in many cases, from the connivance of the sheriffs, it was not at¬ 
tempted at all. If goods or cattle were seized for payment they 
found no purchasers, and sometimes they were recovered by their 
owners by actual violence. Sir John Stanhope, a gentleman of 
Elvaston, in Derbyshire, acted thus, and his example soon found 
imitators. Yet in spite of these difficulties, and though it cost far 
more than the tax produced, the fleet was got together, and in the 
summer of 1636 it cruised about under the command of the Earl 
of Northumberland, and re-established the king’s supremacy in 
the narrow seas. The great ships overawed the Dutch, whilst ten 
nimble pinnaces, called “ Lions’ Whelps,” hunted down the priva¬ 
teers. At the same time a fleet of seven vessels was sent to Bar¬ 
bary, and released many English captives who were in slavery 
there. 1 

§ 20. These results were most satisfactory; but still it seemed 
advisable to support the acts of the government by a legal deci- 


1 Some idea may be formed of bow numerous these captives were from the fact that 
there exists in the Public Record Office a petition to King Charles, early in his reign, 
from 2,000 women, who describe themselves as the wives of English captives at Sallee. 


Chapter II.] THE STUARTS 409 

The King’s Prerogative upheld. The Courts Instruments of oppression. 

sion, and accordingly in February, 1637, the judges were called on 
for their opinion on the questions : (1), “ When the kingdom is in 
danger may not the king call on his subjects for ships, or money 
to supply them ? ” and (2), “ Is not the king the sole judge of the 
necessity ? ” The judges, who were dependants of the king, of 
course answered in the affirmative; but this did not settle the mat¬ 
ter. On the contrary, it was more vehemently opposed than ever. 

§ 21. One eminent member of the Puritan party was John 
Hampden, a Buckinghamshire squire, and the cousin of Oliver 
Cromwell. He had, some time before this, been cited in the eccle¬ 
siastical court for holding a train-band muster in Beaconsfield 
churchyard on a Sunday, and also for absenting himself from his 
own parish church, which stood within a few yards of his house. 
He thought it advisable to make the required submission, and on 
promising “willing obedience for the future ” he was dismissed. 
He, however, considered himself aggrieved in being thus obliged 
to obey such tyrannical laws, and when the sum of thirty shillings 
was demanded from him as ship-money, he refused to pay it. 
The cause was argued before the whole twelve judges, and judg¬ 
ment was of course given for the crown. From this time forward 
no considerable opposition was made to the levy of the tax; but 
it was afterwards voted illegal by the Long Parliament, and the 
judges and others who had sanctioned it were most rigorously 
dealt with. 

§ 22. Less defensible than the fining for knighthood 8 or the 
ship-money were the revival, for money, of monopolies 
that had been abolished as oppressive, and the proceed- 3 ^ 1G ’ P ' 4 ° 7 ' 
ings of the Star-chamber, b the High Commission, c the b * 5 ’ P ' 2% ' 
Forest courts, and the Court of the Earl Marshal. ' § 6 ’ p * 354 
Not one of these courts had any settled rules of procedure; hence, 
even where their conduct was equitable it could often be repre¬ 
sented as not legal, and the jealousy of the judges of the law 
courts inclined them to listen favorably to every complainant, and 
to interfere in his favor on the merest pretext. The Earl Marshal’s 
court took cognizance of any slighting speech "against the nobility, 
and, to give one instance alone, punished a London citizen for 
calling a peer’s servant’s badge a goose instead of a swan. The 
Forest courts made inquiry as to encroachments on the royal forests, 
and extorted large sums as a composition for offences that had 
been committed, if committed at all, hundreds of years before. 

18 


410 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book YII. 

Proceedings of some Courts. The King and Archbishop in Scotland. 

The jurors were the king’s servants, and as men were threatened 
with the rigor of the Star-chamber if they “ cast a slight upon 
royalty” bv disputing any of its obsolete claims, no one had con¬ 
fidence in them. 

§ 23. The courts of Star-chamber and High Commission, and 
the king’s council, were mainly composed of the same persons, 
though assembling under different names and in different numbers, 
as suited their convenience from time to time, and hence any ap¬ 
peal from the sentence of one to the other was a mere delusion. 
The proceedings of these tribunals, though to us, in a better state 
of society, they appear terribly harsh, were yet in reality much less 
unmerciful than they had been in the time of the Tudors. To 
offences which Henry or Elizabeth had punished with death, they 
awarded the pillory, branding, and imprisonment; and this com¬ 
parative leniency was certainly not earned by any want of offence 
given. For example, Prynne, a lawyer, published a book in which 
he applied the most scandalous epithets possible to the queen; 
Leighton, a Scotchman, described her as “a Canaanite • and an 
idolatress,” and plainly recommended the assassination of the 
bishops; whilst Burton, once a royal chaplain, and Bastwick, a 
physician, assailed them in terms that it might be thought no edu¬ 
cated men would use under any circumstances. The records of 
the court remain to show that Archbishop Laud frequently voted 
for more moderate sentences than were passed, and in Burton’s 
case, in particular, he declined to vote at all, saying that the 
matter touched him too closely for him to be an impartial judge. 
But he was already so hated by the Puritans that they chose to 
ascribe every severity to him, and said that “the arch-wolf of 
Canterbury ever had his hand in persecuting the saints and shed¬ 
ding the blood of the martyrs.” 

§ 24. King James had paid a visit to Scotland in 1617, and had 
replaced the bishops. Laud, then one of his chaplains, accompa¬ 
nied him, and took an active part in the business. Now that he was 
at the head of the English Church he wished to complete the 
work, and what seemed a suitable opportunity soon offered. The 
Scots had begun to murmur that King Charles had never visite*d 
them, saying that they saw how he despised their poor country ; 

and so loud grew their complaints, that they were 

« § 53, p. 424. sug p ecte( j to kg fomented by the Marquis (afterward 
Duke) of Hamilton,* who was of the blood royal, and was 


Chapter II.] THE STUARTS. 411 

Attempt to restore Episcopacy in Scotland opposed. Strafford and Laud. 

thought to aspire to the crown. To check this design, Charles re¬ 
paired to Scotland in 1633, and was so cordially received that 
nothing he could desire seemed likely to be rejected. Laud there¬ 
fore proposed that the Scottish episcopate and liturgy should be 
restored and the English liturgy introduced, and Charles consented. 

§ 25. But the national as well as the religious feeling of the Scots 
rose against this, for Laud proceeded with a high hand. Tumults 
ensued. The crafty Richelieu, of the French court, a 
revenged himself for the aid given years before to the 8 ^ 6 ’ p ' 40 ~ ; 
Huguenots by supplying money and arms, and in a short time all 
Scotland appeared banded against the enemies of freedom in 
Church and State in a covenant, which bound all subscribers to 
“resist all persons whatsoever” who should attempt to introduce 
any of these English innovations. The king tried to pacify them 
by abandoning both bishops and liturgy; but his concessions came, 
as they always did, too late. The Scots elected a General Assem¬ 
bly on their own authority, deposed the bishops in a body, and 
prepared for war by seizing the royal fortresses and stores; at the 
same time they entered into open negotiations with the King of 
France, invited Scottish othceKS and soldiers to repair to them 
from the German w r ars, and secured the favor of the Puritan party 
by declaring that they had no ill-will to the English people, and 
had only taken up arms to resist the introduction of popery. 

§ 26. Puritanism, from the very first, had its political as well as 
its religious aspect, and Laud was the determined foe of both. 
Strict in enforcing obedience, he was quite as ready to render it 
where he acknowledged it to be due. He openly avowed himself 
a believer in the divine right of kings, and quite willing to accept 
all its consequences of absolute lordship over the person and 
property of the subject. Such a belief was more odious to the 
Puritans, who were republicans at heart, than even his adherence 
to the rituals of the Roman Catholic Church. He and Strafford, 
the king’s chief adviser, were such intimate friends, that what¬ 
ever one did the other was equally responsible for, and are equally 
blamed. Hitherto they had carried all before them, and they 
were now apparently firmly established in power, though in reality 
a terrible reverse was close at hand. 

§ 27. Early in the year 1639 a fleet and army was despatched 
against the Scots, and the king proceeded as far as York, as if to 
take command. Instead of fighting, an agreement was come to 


412 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book VII. 

The King and the Scotch. A new Parliament called. Its Character and Doings. 

by which the Scots promised to lay down their arms. But this 
they did not do. On their own authority a new Scottish parlia¬ 
ment and assembly met, which proceeded rigorously against all 
w ho declined to join them, and refused to disperse when dis¬ 
solved by the royal commissioner. To bring them to submission 
the king raised a new army; but his funds were exhausted before 
it was properly equipped, and he found himself obliged at last, 
after eleven years of despotic rule, to call a parliament. This met 
on the 18th of April, 1640: but, following the example of their 
predecessors, they insisted on discussing their grievances before 
granting supplies, and after a sitting of only three weeks they 
were dissolved. The nobility, however, lent the king the sum of 
£300,000, when the army was equipped and set out. By this time, 
however, it had become disaffected, and it suffered itself to be 
shamefully defeated by the Scots at Newbum, when, in spite of 
the efforts of Strafford, who had taken the command, it retired to 
the borders of Yorkshire, leaving all the north of England open 
to the invaders. The Scots, who professed unbounded devotion to 
the king, as well as sincere love for the English nation, readily 
agreed to a cessation of arms on .condition of being amply pro¬ 
vided for, and were allowed to send commissioners to London 
to discuss all their grievances. The king now summoned the 
peers to meet him at York, and acquainted them with his 
intention to call another parliament; and accordingly the mem¬ 
orable Long Parliament met at Westminster on the 3d of Novem¬ 
ber, 1640. 

§ 28. In this assembly everything was directed by a small knot 
of active, daring men, such as Pym, Hampden, Cromwell, and 
Vane, who soon came to be known as “Root and Branch,” 
and whose settled design it evidently was to overthrow both 
Church and State. One of their earliest steps was to pass reso¬ 
lutions censuring the levying of ship-money, tonnage and 
poundage, monopolies, innovations in religion, indeed every act 
of the government for the last dozen years, so that every person of 
property found himself liable to be called before the House for 
something that he had done or had not done. Awed by this, too 
many of the rest sought safety by applauding every step that was 
taken, whether right or wrong. And the same course was fol¬ 
lowed by the peers, who, with the exception of some faint resist¬ 
ance to a few particular measures, where they always gave way at 


THE STUARTS. 


413 


Chapter, II.] 

Tyranny of Parliament. Strafford impeached. 

last, seemed to be quite content to act as “ their masters of the 
House of Commons” would have them. 

§ 29. The first care of the House was to appoint a number of 
committees to receive complaints of all “grievances and exor¬ 
bitances in Church or State.” These complaints poured in from 
all quarters, and in dealing with them the Commons at once as¬ 
sumed sovereign power, setting aside sentences of courts, releasing 
prisoners, and ordering then- judges to make them compensation; 
whilst every one who was complained of to them found that he 
had to appear before a tribunal as thoroughly inquisitorial as the 
Star-chamber or High Commission. Prynne, Burton, and Bastwick 
were set at liberty, and brought in triumph to London; Puritan 
ministers who had been deprived for contumacious conduct were 
sought for where they did not come forward voluntarily; and, to 
provide them again with pulpits, clergymen whose chief offence 
was that they had obeyed the laws revived by the king for raising 
money or enforcing conformity in matters of religion, were de¬ 
nounced as “scandalous,” and driven from house and home, and 
often imprisoned also, on the vague charge of “malignancy,” or 
dislike of the proceedings of their new masters. This, however, 
was but the beginning of the troubles that they were to endure. 

§ 30. Whilst John White, a lawyer, and Sir Edward Deering, a 
Kentish baronet, and the nephew of a famous Puritan preacher of 
Queen Elizabeth’s time, as chairmen of committees, eagerly listened 
to every charge against the clergy, the real leaders of the repub¬ 
licans, Pym and Hampden, were engaged in measures for the 
deposition of a more formidable opponent, namely, the Earl of 
Strafford. 

§ 31. Knowing how odious he was to them, and also thinking 
that his remaining with the army in the north would keep the 
Scots in check, the Earl did not attend the parliament at its open¬ 
ing ; but in a few days after the king commanded him to repair 
to London and take his seat among the peers. No sooner was 
this known than Pym, who had threatened him so many years 
before, made a most bitter speech, describing him as “the greatest 
promoter of tyranny that any age had produced,” when it was 
resolved to impeach him of treason, and to require the Lords to 
commit him to custody until the Commons had time to frame their 
charges against him. Pym carried up the request. It was at once 
granted, and Strafford’s fate was sealed. 


414 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book YII. 

Laud and Strafford in Prison. Action of the Commons. Strafford beheaded. 

§ 32. Shortly after this, Archbishop Laud, Strafford’s zealous 
coadjutor, was complained of as “ the great incendiary,” and in 
like manner was sent to the Tower. Alarmed at these steps, Sir 
John Finch, the lord keeper, once the Speaker of the 
a ^ 11, p ‘ 401 ‘ House of Commons,® and Windebank, the secretary ^ 
fled for their lives. Next the charges against Strafford, twenty- 
eight in number, were presented to the Lords, and he was brought 
to trial. The investigation lasted many days, for the Earl de¬ 
fended himself with spirit, and the peers hesitated to convict 
him, as they could not agree to Pym’s argument, that any number 
of misdemeanors could mount up to treason. The Commons 
solved the difficulty by passing a bill of attainder, just as a Tudor 
parliament might have done, 1 and the Lords gave way. About 
sixty of the Commons voted against this tyrannical measure, when 
their names were posted up in the streets as “ Straffordians, who 
to save a traitor would betray their country,” by which their lives 
were endangered. 

§ 33. The only hope remaining for the Earl was that the king 
would refuse his assent to the bill; but this he had not the courage 
to do. Williams, the Bishop of Lincoln, who had been in dis¬ 
grace in the time of Laud, b and was a Puritan in 
b ^ 14, p ' 406 ' heart, as he afterwards showed by joining the Par¬ 
liament, was now applied to for his advice, and he suggested to 
the king that though “ as a man Charles Stuart could not desert 
his faithful servant with a clear conscience, he might do so as a 
king.” The monarch acted accordingly, and signed the bill, as he 
did another at the same time, that afterwards proved as fatal to 
himself. This was a bill that rendered the Parliament incapable of 
dissolution except by its own consent. Strafford, when told of 
his fate, might well have exclaimed, with the experience of all past 
English history before, “ Put not your trust in princes, for in them 
is no salvation.” This desertion of his Mend and faithful servant 
was so mean and ungenerous that Charles had but few real friends 
amono 1 honorable men thereafter. His minister was beheaded on 

O 

Tower Hill on the 12th of May, 1641; and from this time for- 


1 Like Henry’s parliaments, they made a law for the purpose, as is shown by the 
following entry on their Journals: “April 19, 1641. Unsolved upon question. That 
the endeavor of Thomas Earl of Strafford to subvert the ancient fundamental laws of 
the realms of England and Ireland, and to introduce an arbitrary tyrannical govern¬ 
ment against law, is high treason.” 


Chapter II.] TIIE STUARTS. 415 

Affairs in Ireland. Long Parliament and the King at War. 

ward the reign of Charles the First was merely nominal. He had 
conclusively shown that he had not the power to save those who 
served him, and his course was one downward path till his head 
also rolled on the scaffold. 

§ 34. The attempted colonization of the north of Ireland in the 

time of King James has been already alluded to, a 

J * a § 23 p 397 

and it has been mentioned how imperfectly it was 
carried out. Its result was shown, in less than thirty years after it 
had been commenced, by a formidable rising of the natives, headed 
by Roger O’More and Sir, Phelim O’Neil, men of old Irish families 
though educated in England, and men who saw With hot indigna¬ 
tion the insolent oppression practised on their countrymen by the. 
adventurers who alone occupied the grants that had been made. 
They expected that the old English settlers would make common 
cause with them, all being Romanists, and they had planned the 
surprise of Dublin and the expulsion of the new-comers for the 
same time, namely, October, 1641. They were exposed by Owen 
O’Conolly, an Dish Protestant, who learned the secret from one of 
the conspirators who was intoxicated, and Dublin was secured by 
the lords justices, who had succeeded Strafford in the government. 
But the insurrection broke out in the north, and was accompanied 
by terrible havoc, though not to the extent that the Parliamenta¬ 
rians afterwards represented. 

§ 35. The news reached the king (who was in Scotland) and the 
Parliament much about the same time, and measures for the safety 
of the Irish Protestants were at once ordered; but little was done. 
The king had no means of helping them, and the parliament de¬ 
layed action so long that the matter, stood over until civil war 
broke out in England. Then they talked loudly of vengeance, 
which, from mere alarm, induced many Romanists who had 
hitherto stood aloof to join the insurgents. Others declared for the 
king, when then’ opponents asserted, with good warrant, that the 
rebellion had been originally planned by the royalists, in Church 
and State, from their hatred to the true Protestant faith. 

§ 36. The “ Root and Branch” men b and their adherents in both 

Houses formed a compact bodv, to which the king 

J ° b § 28, p. 412. 

could only oppose divided councils, and therefore 

they pressed forward in their struggle for emancipation with only 
such occasional checks and fruitless resistance as made their ulti¬ 
mate triumph the more complete. They imprisoned judges and 


416 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book VII. 

Despotic measures of the King. His Flight from London. Prepares for War. 

bishops, and compelled the king to agree to sweeping away the 
Star-chamber, High Commission, Stannary and Forest Courts, 
granting tonnage and poundage for a month at a time as the 
price of each concession. Thus more than a year of the Long 
Parliament passed away, when at last the king, finding his power 
rapidly waning, resolved to try vigorous measures. He made an 
attempt to seize Lord Kimbolton and five of the members of the 
Commons (Hampden, Haselrigge, Holies, Pym, and Strode), intend¬ 
ing to have them tried for treason. In this he failed [Jan. 4, 
1642], and becoming alarmed at the threatening aspect of the Lon¬ 
doners, among whom the members had found refuge, he, on the 
10th of the same month, quitted his capital, never more to return 
to it till brought in a prisoner doomed to death. 

§ 37. But though the king had thus withdrawn, some inter¬ 
course was kept up between him and the parliament. Each party 
saw that the sword alone could settle their differences, but each 
wished to make the other appear as the aggressor. Accordingly, 
whilst the parliament seized on the Tower, and Portsmouth, and 
Hull, and the queen proceeded abroad to buy arms and military 
stores by pledging or selling the crown jewels, the king desired 
the parliament to draw up one complete statement of their de¬ 
mands and grievances, which he promised to consider favorably; 
and they, with a profusion of thanks, agreed to do so, only re¬ 
quiring him, as a proof of his confidence, to put the militia into 
their hands. Charles had already granted as important a matter as 
this, but he now positively refused compliance, and prepared to 
take up arms. His first step was singularly unfortunate. lie 
went in person to Hull, in March, 1642, but Sir John Hotliam, the 
parliamentary governor, refused to admit him. The parliament 
then called out the London trained bands [May, 1642], under 
Major-General Skippon, who was originally a private soldier in 
Flanders; and the king summoned the gentry of York, where he 
then was, to form a guard for his person. 

§ 38. Each party now denounced the other as traitors, and sev¬ 
eral members of the Commons, who were unwilling to follow the 
leaders of the House to the extremity to which matters were tend¬ 
ing, left them and joined the royalists. The Commons then sent 
propositions for peace to the king; but as they demanded such 
concessions from him as his views of the royal prerogative would 
not allow him to grant, he refused to listen to them. Then the 


THE STUARTS. 


ClIAPTEIi II.] 


417 


Beginning of Civil War.** Comparative strength of King and Parliament. 

Houses voted that an army should be raised “for the defence of 
the king and parliament,” of which they appointed the Earl of Es¬ 
sex (the son of Elizabeth’s favorite) a captain-general. 

The king, on this, declared Essex a traitor, and set ^ 5 °’ P ‘ 374# 
up his royal standard at Nottingham, on the 22d of August, 
1G42. In three days afterw T ard he sent propositions for peace to 
the parliament; but they refused to entertain them whilst his 
standard continued spread, when they, too, were denounced as 
traitors. In a few days more he offered to withdraw his pro¬ 
clamation if they would do the same ; but they knew their superior 
strength and growing power, as well as the untrustworthiness of 
the king, and promptly replied that their arms should never be 
laid down until all delinquents were left to justice. Henceforth 
war was inevitable. 

§ 39. In entering upon war, the parliament were well aware of 
the advantages on their side. The more intelligent people under¬ 
stood and applauded the principles for which they were contend¬ 
ing. London, and almost all the wealthy towns, adhered to them, 
and they had thus abundant means not only to equip an army, but 
to secure the services of veteran officers, long experienced in 
the wars of the Continent, w r ho speedily imparted the necessary 
discipline to their men. The king, on the other hand, had only 
such service as the nobility and gentry were willing to give at 
their own cost, and there was this heavy drawback to it, that there 
was great variety of motives among them; for whilst some were 
enthusiastic, others were only lukewarm, and had no wish to give 
him too decided a victory, lest he should recall his late conces¬ 
sions. Hence, having no great principle of action as a bond of 
union, they quarrelled among themselves instead of uniting, and 
only agreed in the fatal mistake of despising the military order 
and precision of their adversaries. 

§ 40. Though the parliament had the towns, the spirit of loyalty 
was strong in some of the rural districts, particularly in York¬ 
shire, Wales, and Cornwall, and abundance of fighting men pre¬ 
sented themselves, but these the king could never properly equip. 
His magazines had been seized even before the war broke out, and 
of the supplies that his queen sent from abroad b ^ 
much the greater part fell into the hands of the b ° ’ P ‘ 
enemy, who had also possessed themselves of his shipping, the 
sailors in general being partisans of the parliament. 

18* 


418 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book V1T. 

Battle of Edgehill. Negotiations fail. The Court at Oxford. 

§ 41. The king, soon after setting up his standard, marched to 
Shrewsbury, where, by coining his plate into money, he collected 
his first army. Prince Rupert of Bavaria, and nephew of Charles, 
had come to England with some followers to assist his uncle, and 
was placed at the head of a regiment of horse. He overthrew a 
body of the insurgent cavalry near Worcester, but was obliged 
to withdraw on the approach of Essex." The royal 
a § 38, p. 416. arm y £j ien ma rched towards London, and on the 23d 
of October [1642] encountered its adversaries at Edgehill, in 
Warwickshire. The battle was fierce, full 5,000 men being slain, 
of whom 3,000 were parliamentarians, but the night closed in be¬ 
fore either party could be said to be the victor. They remained 
watching each other for the greater part of the next day, when 
the king marched off to Oxford, which was his chief post during 
the war, and Essex retired to Coventry 1 and. its neighborhood, 
where he remained until his troops were recruited. Desiring 
peace, the parliament now proposed a negotiation to that end. 
Commissioners met, but as those of the parliament still made the 
same lofty demands as before, negotiations were “speedily broken 
off, and the country was'finally divided into two hostile camps. 
Of the lamentable war that followed, a very brief notice is all 
that need be attempted. The very different position of the parties 
to it must first be noticed. 

§ 42. During the years from 1643 to 1646, the king, though he 
made occasional visits to Wales, the west of England, and the 
midland counties, had his seat of government at Oxford, which 
was strongly fortified, and where he held a parliament of his own 
in 1644. Though a very much larger number of peers attended, 
and the Commons were at least as numerous as those of the Long 
Parliament, b who sat at Westminster, they could do 
b ^ 27, P ' ' him little service except as individuals. Here he had 
c § 14, p. 16 . w | 10 } e resources 0 f the University c at his disposal, 

the colleges giving him their plate to be coined, and the students and 
many of the older members serving as soldiers in his 
d § 14, p. l <• forces. The University of Cambridge, d though equally 
well inclined to his cause, was kept in subjection by the forces 

i This was then a strong walled town, whose inhabitants in general were zealous 
partisans of the parliament. They had been fined in the Star-chamber for the-'r be- 
a 4 23 p 410 havior when Prynne passed through on his way to prison ; * and, in 
common with several other towns that had taken a conspicuous part 
in opposing the royal forces, their walls were demolished at the Restoration. 


THE STUARTS. 


419 


a § 36, p. 415. 


b § 10, p. 404. 


ClIAPTEK II.] 

The Long Parliament. Enthusiasm of the People. Ordinances. 

of tlie Earl of Manchester (the Lord Kimbolton of former days), a 
consisting of many strong regiments of horse and foot 
raised in the associated (or eastern) counties, which 
had long been the very hot-bed of Puritanism. The Earl himself 
was little inclined to push matters to extremities; but he had under 
his nominal command Oliver Cromwell, of Huntin»- 
don, b and by him the University was speedily “ regu¬ 
lated,” as it was called, its property being seized, its loyal members 
expelled or imprisoned, and its buildings turned into garrisons 
and jails ; a fate that befell Oxford a few years later. 

§ 43. The Long Parliament sat at Westminster, and nearly all 
London ranked as their partisans. The Presbyterian ministers 
then held marvellous control over the great mass of the people. 
They occupied the pulpits of churchmen, and, like their predeces¬ 
sors, used texts of Scripture in discourses intended to fire the 
hearts of the people and induce them to “ go to the help of the 
Lord against the mighty.” In this they were successful. The 
women were as enthusiastic as the men. They threw their lino's 
and other ornaments into the fund for the army, and carried 
earth in their aprons to the workmen on the fortifications. Hamp¬ 
den,® Cronrwell, d and many other members raised 


c § 21, p. 409. 
d § 10, p. 404. 


troops and put themselves at their head, and those 
who remained in London were indefatigable in form¬ 
ing and carrying on an orderly but vigorous government. The 
Houses usually sat three days in the week, and the other three 
days were occupied with committees, which met at the Goldsmiths’, 
Haberdashers’, and other companies’ halls in the city. So soon as 
the king quitted London they dispensed with the custom of ask¬ 
ing his consent to anything that they had a mind to do; and for 
the future, instead of Acts of Parliament, in the legal sense, they 
passed Ordinances in their own names only, many of which were 
deemed by the royalists as infinitely more illegal and oppressive 
than anything that the king had ever attempted. 1 

1 A late English writer, whose sympathies for the royal and ehnrch party of the 
time are very apparent, sums up as follows their principal measures, which the exi¬ 
gency of the case clearly called for, in an abridgment of a portion of the “ Annals of Eng¬ 
land,” prepared by himself, in which may be found the dates of the various ordinances: 

“ By such instruments they levied heavy weekly assessments-for the support of their 
army and the relief of the wounded, the widows and orphans, and rates for fortifying 
the city of London and many other places ; imposed an excise, and established courts- 
martial. They confiscated the estates of ‘all persons, ecclesiastical or temporal,’ who 
appeared in arms against them, or voluntarily contributed to the king’s service, 


420 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND 


[Book YII. 

Archbishop Laud beheaded. Professions of the Republicans. 

§ 44. One of the most notable of the ordinances was that by 
which they put to death Archbishop Laud, a on the 

n -f a j/i/* w JL 

• ’ P ‘ ‘ 10th of January, 1645. After an imprisonment of 

more than three years he had been brought to trial; but in spite of all 
the inquisitorial diligence of the lawyer, Prynne, b no 
b § A p. • rea | g rounc [ f or condemning him could be found. He 
replied to every charge with a clearness and spirit wonderful in so old 
a man (he was seventy-two years of age), and fairly baffled his prose¬ 
cutors, when they solved the difficulty, as they had before done with 
Strafford,® by passing a vote [November 11, 1644] de- 
c § 32, p. 414. c i ar - n g pj m a traitor; and it was with difficulty that 

they could be prevailed on to allow of his being beheaded, instead 
of being hanged like any common felon. 

§ 45. Through the whole course of these proceedings the chief 
actors in them always professed to believe that the king was in the 
hands of a faction—usually, to make it the more odious, styled 
“the popish faction,” or the “queen’s faction ”—and that they 
took arms as much for his preservation as their own. Hence they 
always declared that their armies were raised for the service of the 


treated those who attempted to stand neuter as enemies, forbade quarter being given 
to Irishmen taken in England, and when tiie war was closed, ordered all ‘ papists, offi¬ 
cers, and soldiers of fortune, and other delinquents,’ to remove from London, under 
the pains of treason. In direct violation of the Bill of Right, they made numberless 
forced levies of horses and arms; gave powers to their generals to press men into their 
service; passed a most tyrannical ordinance to ‘ repress disorders in printing; ’ and 
after imprisoning by mere arbitrary votes any who ventured to present addresses that 
were distasteful, they passed a rigid law against ‘tumultuous petitioning,’ the very 
means by which their own power had been first established. To keep alive the inter¬ 
est in their cause, they imposed a contribution of a meal a week towards the support 
of their troops, and ordained a monthly fast, besides numerous occasional ones; they 
also prohibited public amusements, but were obliged by the clamor of the London ap¬ 
prentices to allow the second Tuesday in each month as a day of recreation, instead 
of the customary festivals and holidays, which had been suppressed as superstitious 
and vain. To show their irreconcilable hostility to the church and its ministers, and 
to banish all decency and order from the public service of God, they ordered a sys¬ 
tematic defacement of churches, under the pretext of ‘removing monuments of super¬ 
stition or idolatry,’ and removed ‘ scandalous ministers.’ In forgetfulness of their pro¬ 
fessed regard for ‘tender consciences,’ they imposed the Covenant on all classes, be¬ 
ginning with the judges and lawyers, and disabling all refusers to practise any liberal 
profession, or hold any public employment. They substituted the Directory for the 
Prayer-book; forbade preaching, except by persons allowed by both Houses; set up 
the Presbyterian form of church government; formally abolished episcopacy; ‘regu¬ 
lated ’ both the universities, and sold the bishops’ lands, paying their most active in¬ 
struments with the proceeds, and thus making the plunder of the church directly 
contributory to the ruin of the State—a lesson which should not be forgotten.” 


CnAPTER II.] 


THE STUARTS. 


421 


‘ § 37, p. 416. 


Flight of the Queen. Battles of Marston-moor and Newbury. 

“ king and parliament,” professed unbounded deference and re¬ 
spect for him personally, and frequently invited him to leave his 
evil advisers, whom they were determined to bring to condign 
punishment,—his queen, who, in spite of many risks, had rejoined 
her husband a after the war broke out, being named 
as one of the chief. She, feeling her life in danger, 
left England soon after the battle of Marston-moor [July, 1644]; 
but even before this their threats had detached many men from 
the king’s party. One of these set the example of compounding 
for his “ delinquency”—that is, to pay whatever fine they chose to 
impose. It was that Sir Edward Deering, the Puritan, who had 
once so distinguished himself by persecuting the clergy and pro¬ 
posing to do away with episcopacy. b He had become 


b § 30, p. 413. 
0 § 28, p. 412. 


§ 25, p. 411. 


alarmed at the furious proceedings of the “ Root and 
Branch,” c and fled from them to Oxford. His estates 
were then seized, and, as he was a man of little courage or prin¬ 
ciple, he soon came back again, hoping to recover them. But 
in this he was disappointed, and he died shortly afterward, un¬ 
pitied by either party, though his young heir was favorably dealt 
with, to induce others to follow his example. 

§ 46. In the first year of the war [a.d. 1643], success inclined to 
the king, and the parliament called in 20,000 Scots, under General 
Leslie, to their assistance, not only paying the soldiers for their 
services, but gratifying the rest of the nation by renouncing epis¬ 
copacy and taking the covenant. 4 These allies, how¬ 
ever, did not suffice to turn the scale, as the king also 
found new adherents, and consequently the year 1644 was one of 
varied fortune to each party. Prince Rupert was defeated at 
Marston-moor [July 2,1644]. On the other hand, the Earl of Mon¬ 
trose raised the royal standard in Scotland, and inflicted many 
heavy blows on the covenanters ; and Essex, by some mismanage¬ 
ment, suffered himself to be surrounded in Cornwall; and his 
troops were obliged to surrender. A fresh army was now raised, 
under the Earl of Manchester and Sir William Waller, which 
fought an indecisive battle at Newbury [October 27], and then 
went into winter, quarters. 

§ 47. Great discontent and alarm now prevailed in the parliament, 
which Oliver Cromwell, bold and ambitious, aggravated by his 
course. He had always been impatient of control, and had quar¬ 
relled with his general, Manchester, whom he regarded as too slow 


42 2 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 


[Book VII. 

Cromwell’s Course. Ironside Regiment. Action on Cromwell’s Advice. 

and cautious. Cromwell had shown much courage and conduct 
in the field, though he had not been bred to arms, and a regiment of 
horse that he had raised, mainly from among the small freehold¬ 
ers, his neighbors, was, on account of its prowess and endurance, 
popularly called the Ironsides, and regarded as the choicest of the 
parliamentary soldiery. Cromwell conceived the idea that the war 
was purposely prolonged by Essex, Waller, Leslie, and other soldiers 
by profession, for the sake of their own gain; 1 and he maintained 
that “ men earnest in the cause” could and would finish it at once. 
He obtained a favorable hearing, and it was determined that the 
army should be placed on a “new model,” his Ironsides being 
chosen to furnish it. At the same time a number of preachers, on 
a monthly fast-day, soon after the battle of Newbury, a 
3 ^ 46, P ' 421 ‘ declaimed simultaneously against the war, saying that 
their ill-success was a token from God that too many of the parlia¬ 
ment sought their own private ends, and held profitable offices 
instead of attending to the affairs of their country. Sir Henry 
Vane, a son of Charles’s secretary of state, who was an acute poli¬ 
tician, expert statesman, and a religious enthusiast, was greatly 
moved by these charges, and at once offered to surrender an office 
that he held. Cromwell appeared even more eager, and not only 
proposed to give up his command, but exhorted all true lovers of 
their country to do the same, assuring the House that there were 
officers in the army not of their number who were fit for any com¬ 
mand in the world, naming as one, Sir Thomas Fairfax, who had 
long served the parliament in Yorkshire, and who had greatly con¬ 
tributed to the victory at Marston-moor. b Thus they 

§ 46, p. 421. wou | c | ^ave p r0 p er officers for their new army, and 
they, the representatives of the people, could give all their atten¬ 
tion to redressing the evils of the State. 

§ 48. In spite of the murmurs of the Lords (only twenty-two in 
number), a self-denying ordinance was passed, prohibiting any 
member of either house from holding any office of profit; and in 
consequence Essex, Waller, and others resigned their commissions. 
Cromwell was absent on the day that this w T as done, and Fairfax, 
when put in Essex’s post of lord general, applied for leave to keep 
Cromwell with him for a few days, for the purpose of assisting 

i Essex had an allowance from delinquents’ estates of £10,000 per annum, and the 
pay of all ranks in their army was high. Hence many men were noted as having 
grown rich by the war. 


Chapter II.*] THE STTJARTS. 423 

Cromwell Acting Military Chief. The King sold by the Scotch. 

him to get his troops in proper order. The permission was granted, 
and when the Houses afterwards wished to recall it, they found 
the matter beyond their power. Fairfax proved to be a mere 
cipher, and Cromwell was his master and theirs. For it was he 
who had mainly gained the victory of Naseby [June 14, 1645], 
which in reality put an end to the war, though Montrose con¬ 
tinued in arms, and Oxford and some other of the royal garrisons 
held out for more than a year longer. 

§ 49. The new modpl of the army had* had the designed effect of 
filling its ranks with men of the sternest Puritanism, calling them¬ 
selves Independents, and to whom the Scots and the Presbyterians 
were almost as odious as the king and the church. Cromwell, 
especially, spoke slightingly of the Scotch troops, and his soldiers 
sometimes dragged the Presbyterian preachers out of their pulpits. 
This might have been borne, but by his management the monthly 
pay of their “brethren of Scotland” was, under various pretences, 
purposely let fall into arrear. Alarmed at this, the Scots entered 
into negotiations with the king, who was still at Oxford, and he 
had the simplicity to repair to their quarters near Newark [May, 
1646], thinking that this appeal to their honor and good feeling 
would procure him, as “their native pringe,” better terms than the 
English parliament would offer. 

§ 50. But the king was deceived. The parliament (or rather 
Cromwell and his Independents) threatened to take him from them 
by force, on which the Scots carried him with them to Newcastle, 
but announced that they would be ready to deliver him up “ on 
a consideration being paid for their losses, hazards, charges, and 
damage,” which “consideration” they fixed at £1,000,000. The 
sum of £400,000, which was raised by the sale of the bishops’ 
lands, was offered to them. This they accepted, and then marched 
off to their own country, leaving the unhappy king in the hands of 
the parliamentary commissioners. Their conduct was approved in 
Scotland, only fourteen members in the parliament there voting 
against it; 1 but after a time the people became sensible of the 
disgrace, and to wipe it off they went to war with the English in 
1648. 

§ 51. When the king was thus secured, the parliament made a 
momentary show of independence, not only by entering into nego- 

i The first man to object was Alexander Strang, a shoemaker, the provost of Forfar, 
who, when asked for his vote, replied, “ I disapprove, as an honest man should do.” 


424 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 


[Book YII. 

Cromwell and the Parliament at War. Levellers. Flight of the King. 

tiation with him, but by proposing to disband the greater portion 
of the army and send the rest to Ireland, where civil war still 
raged. Relying on the support of their fortifications, which were 
manned by the London militia under General Skippon, they 
assumed a lofty tone, and threatened the soldiers as “disturbers of 
the public peace.” But Cromwell, who was named for dismissal, 
thwarted all their measures. He was the real commander of the 
army, though, for appearance’ sake, Fairfax a was re- 
a § 48, p. 422. ta - ne( ^ a j. - tg ] lcac p Cromwell’s steps were prompt 

and decided. By his direction the king was seized at Holdenby 
House and brought to the army, which the very next day [June 5, 
1647] refused to be disbanded. Then he marched upon London, 
■where the militia abandoned the forts at his approach, and com¬ 
pelled the parliament to expel several obnoxious members and to 
recall all their offensive declarations which seemed meant to unite 
the royalists and the Presbyterians against the army. Finally, he 
installed the king at Hampton Court, offering to replace him on 
the throne. But the conditions that he proposed were so burden¬ 
some that Charles, instead, listened to the Scots, most erroneously 
thinking that whatever party he joined with must prevail. Then 
Cromwell boldly proclaimed his republicanism, by saying openly, 
“ How happy the condition of this people would be if our gov¬ 
ernment were on the model of that so firmly established in Hol¬ 
land! ” 

§ 52. A faction called Levellers had now arisen in the army, 
who, even more republican and unrelenting than the men who had 
begun the war, clamored for the abolition of all distinctions in the 
State, and openly demanded the death of the king as the cause of all 
the bloodshed. Alarmed at their menaces, the monarch fled from 
Hampton Court to Carisbrook Castle, in the Isle of 

b § 9, p. 2. 

Wiglit, b but only to find himself still a prisoner. The 
governor was Colonel Hammond, the son-in-law of Hampden, 0 
and he was so unlikely to be favorable to the king 

§ 21 , p. 409. * s SU pp 0se( j Charles was betrayed into his hands 

when he really meant to escape to the Continent in a ship that had 
been promised him. He renewed his efforts to negotiate with the par¬ 
liament, but the army interfered, and, coerced by them, the Houses 
declared they would no more hold treaty with him, and would treat 
as traitors all who should attempt to do so. 

§ 53. This declaration, as showing their submission to the sol- 


Chapter II.] THE STUARTS. 425 

Invasion by the Scots, and Insurrections. Cromwell’s Measures. 

diery, was odious even to many of their own party, and the king 
procured an appeal to the people to be circulated, which had such 
an effect that risings in his favor took place in many parts of the 
country. But Cromwell was able to put them all down, as well 
as to defeat the Scots, who, according to their engagement with 
the king, a had entered the north of England. Their a 4g ^ m 
leader was that Duke of Hamilton who had been sup- b g 24 p 410 
posed to aspire to the throne of Scotland, b and who 
had throughout the war acted a very ambiguous part. Some of 
the king’s ships, which had long served the parliament, went over 
to the royal side, and blockaded the river Thames; but from an 
idea that there was a party favorable to the king in London, they 
did no damage. In the mean time a formidable rising had oc¬ 
curred in Kent and Essex ; but this also was suppressed; and to 
show that a government was now established against which it 
should be treason to take up arms, Sir George Lisle and Sir Charles 
Lucus, who had defended Colchester, were shot, and Lord Capel, 
Lord Holland, and the Duke of Hamilton were beheaded. 

§ 54. Still the work of Cromwell and his associates was not 
complete. Soon after the suppression of these risings the parlia¬ 
ment, contrary to the vote they had passed, resumed negotiation 
with the king, and sent a committee to treat with him at Newport, 
in the Isle of Wight. The negotiations lasted for two months 
(Cromwell being absent in Scotland), and the king agreed to most 
of their proposals, when the council of officers accused the parlia¬ 
ment of perfidy, and marched several regiments into London. In 
spite of this the parliament, after a three days’ debate, voted that 
the king’s concessions were a sufficient ground for a settlement. 
On the following day [December 6, 1648] the house was beset by 
a guard, commanded by Colonel Thomas Pride. As the members 
approached they were identified by Lord Gray of Groby, when 
forty-seven who had spoken most freely in favor of the treaty 
were sent to various prisons, and ninety-six more who could not be 
depended on were expelled. This act, relieving parliament of ob¬ 
noxious members, is known in history as “Pride’s Purge.” The 
privileged members who remained were called the “rump of the 
parliament,” and the assembly which they formed is known in 
history as the “ Rump Parliament.” 

§ 55. The parliament, now reduced to about fifty persons, 
voted as the army would have them, that the king should be 


426 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book VII. 

Trial of the King. Efforts to save his Life. His Execution. 

brought to trial as guilty of treason against his people. He had 
already been seized in the Isle of Wight, and earned to Hurst 
Castle, on the opposite coast, and after a short detention there 
was placed at Windsor, where he was treated with extreme rigor 
and indignity. On the 1 st of January, 1G49, the Commons resolved 
that a “high court of justice” should be erected to try him. The 
peers refused to concur, and adjourned their House, when the 
Commons declared that the supreme authority resided in them¬ 
selves, and passed the formal ordinance for the trial. 

§ 56. Before this court, held at the upper end of Westminster 
Hall, and which was presided over by John Bradshaw, a lawyer, 
and was nominally composed of 150 members, the king was 
brought on four separate days. Like his grandmother, Mary 
Queen of Scots,® before a similar tribunal, he refused 

s ’ 1 'to acknowledge its jurisdiction, and next demanded a 
conference with the parliament. This was refused. His trial was 
begun on the 18th of January, 1649, and ended on the 27th of the 
same month, when sentence of death was pronounced. Dutch 
ambassadors, who had been sent over to watch the momentous 
proceedings, generously interceded for the king’s life, and pre¬ 
sented a paper from Charles, the Prince of Wales, signed and 
sealed, for the heads of the army to insert their own terms for 
sparing his father’s life. It was of no avail, and the tragedy went 
on. Fairfax and the Presbyterians generally had refused to join 
in the proceedings against the king, and the commissioners of the 
Scots b protested against the English alone disposing 
b § 27, p. . ^ their prince. But Cromwell and his associates were 
not men to be turned from their purpose by anything but force, 
and having the army entirely at their command, no one could use 
this power against them. 

§ 57. Three days were allowed to the unhappy king to prepare 

for death, which he passed mainly in company with Juxon, Bishop 

of London He also took leave of his children, then in England; 1 

but he declined to see his nephew, the Elector Pala- 
c § 20, p. 396. . . . , . . , .. ’ . , . . 

tme, c who had ]omed the parliament against him, 

and also some of his most faithful adherents, his time, as he said, 

being too short. On the 80th of January his head was cut off 

i Elizabeth and Henry, who had long been prisoners in the hands of the parliament. 
The princess died in confinement in 1650 ; but Henry was released in 1652, and joined 
his brothers on the Continent. 


THE STUARTS. 


427 


ClIAPTER II.] 

A Substitute for the Church Liturgy. 


The reign of Charles the First. 


before his own palace of Whitehall; and on the 8th of the fol¬ 
lowing month he was bulled at Windsor, the parliamentary gov¬ 
ernor being present, and denying his afflicted servants the melan¬ 
choly privilege of reading the burial service of the Anglican 
Church over his remains. The parliament, which had quarrelled 
with the church on the ground that no allowance was made for 
“tender consciences,” had, by means of their Assembly of Divines, 
compiled a sort of liturgy called the Directory for Public Wor¬ 
ship, which, to the extent of their power, they imposed on every 
one in place of the Prayer-book; and the services of the church 
were forbidden to be used, even in private, under heavy penalties. 
But they were used, with more or less of secrecy, during all the 
gloomy period of the civil war; and several of the bishops 
braved all consequences by ordaining priests and deacons. 

§ 58. Charles, thoroughly imbued with the high ideas of his 
father about the divine right of kings, a asserted it # § ^ p m 
even on tl« scaffold, when addressing those present 
he assured them that the people ought never to have a share in 
the government, that being “a thing nothing pertaining to them,” 
and that he “ died a martyr to the people.” He expired after a 
turbulent and most unhappy reign of twenty-four years, in the 
forty-ninth year of his age. His unfaithful queen, who had 
brought much evil upon him and his people, b was h%1 p 40Q 
then enjoying the smiles pf a lover (Jermyn) in Flan¬ 
ders, whom she married soon after the death of her unhappy hus¬ 
band. 


BOOK VIII. 


THE COMMONWEALTH. 
[from a.d. 1649 to 1660.] 


CHAPTER I. 

the Republic, [a.d. 1649 to 1653.] 

§ 1. On tlie day of the death of Charles the First [January 30, 
1649]' the House of Commons passed an act prohibiting, under 
penalty of prosecution for treason, the proclamation eff the Prince 
of Wales, or any other, to be king or chief magistrate of England 
or Ireland, without consent of parliament. They voted to abolish 
the office of a king, and the House of Lords, as “unnecessary, bur¬ 
densome, and dangerous to the liberty, safety, and public interests 
of the people.” Also, to throw down the royal arms in every place 
where found, and for putting in their places an inscription in 
Latin, declaring the abolition of royalty, and the establishment of 
freedom at the date of the late king’s death. A great seal of 
the Commonwealth was made, bearing a map of England and 
Ireland on one side, and a representation of an assembled parlia¬ 
ment on the other, around which were the words, “ The first 
YEAR OF FREEDOM BY THE God’s BLESSING RESTORED, 1648.” 1 
§ 2. Having thus made an entire change in the outward form 
of the government, the law courts were opened, and an Executive 
56 4°6 ^ ounc ^ State was appointed, composed of forty-one 

a § 56, p. -6. mem k erg its president was Bradshaw, A with a salary 
of £2,000 a year, and several other lawyers and civilians had 


1 It was still customary to reckon the beginning of a year, according to the old Jew¬ 
ish habit, on the 25th of March. James the Sixth of Scotland (James the First of 
England) had, in imitation of Nuraa Pompilius, the Roman ruler, more than six 
hundred years before Christ, decreed the beginning of the year to be on the first of 
January, but that custom was not established in England until the year 1752. Hence, 
in the record under consideration, January, 1649, was reckoned in the year 1648. 



Chapter I.] THE COMMONWEALTH. 429 

Cromwell Dictator. Prince of Wales proclaimed King. Civil War in Ireland. 

seats; but the real-head of the government was Cromwell, the 
great military leader, who soon came to be called “King Crom¬ 
well,” so absolute appeared his power. It was he, and not his 
nominal masters, the parliament,* who conquered Scotland and 
Ireland, forced the proud French and Spanish courts to receive 
ambassadors from the nfcw government, and humbled the power¬ 
ful Dutch Republic, which had once been so favorable to them. 
Desborough, his brother-in-law; Ireton, his son-in-law; and Lam¬ 
bert, a trusted confederate, though not of the council, assisted 
him in all his projects whilst there were armed enemies to subdue, 
but no longer. 

§ 3. The Scotch commissioners a quitted London very soon after 
the formation of the new government, their intention a g 27 p 411 
being to proceed to Holland and offer their crown to 
Charles, the Prince of Wales, who, with his brother, the Duke of 
York, resided there, and had some ships at his disposal. They 
were seized'- at Gravesend, and sent under an escort to Scotland; 
but the prince was proclaimed by the Scottish parliament as 
Charles the Second. War was naturally expected, „ § 48) p 422 
when Fairfax b declared that in such a case he would 
not take arms against his fellow Presbyterians. This declaration 
exactly suited Cromwell; but the state of affairs did not allow of 
an immediate war with Scotland. It was Ireland, where the Mar¬ 
quis of Ormond had proclaimed Charles, that was to be first 
reduced, and Fairfax was named lord-lieutenant for the pur¬ 
pose. 

§ 4. Civil war had long been carried on in Ireland in the most 
barbarous ^baanner, the parliamentarians being forbidden to give 
quarter to Irishmen, even if found in England in the king’s ser¬ 
vice, and the natives retaliating to the extent of their power. 
Cromwell, with Ireton, his son-in-law, passed over in August, 
1649, with 6,000 foot and 3,000 horse, stormed Drogheda and 
Wexford, and put every defender to the sword. He thus struck 
such terror everywhere that little resistance was afterwards at¬ 
tempted so long as he remained in the island, which was about 
ten months. He supposed that “this bitterness would save much 
effusion of blood; ” but before he could complete the conquest 
of the country, he was called away by the news that Prince 
Charles had landed in Scotland, where the gallant Montrose 
had preceded him, only to fall a sacrifice to the hatred of the 


430 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book VIII. 

Cromwell at the Head of the Army. His successful Invasion of Scotland. 

very men who now professed such love for royalty. Among these 
the Marquis of Argyle was very conspicuous. 

§ 5. Fairfax was now urged to take the command of the army 
against the Scots, no one seeming so earnest in the matter as 
Cromwell. He again declined, and “my lord general,” as Crom¬ 
well was called, set forward with his army to anticipate an ex¬ 
pected invasion. He crossed the Tweed, and keeping near to the 
coast, for the purpose of receiving supplies from his ships, he 
reached the neighborhood of Edinburgh without opposition. 
Here he found the city strongly fortified and a considerable army 
gathered, but it was weak from internal dissensions. Many of 
the English royalists had joined the young King Charles, and as 
they were mostly veteran soldiers they would have been of great 
service had not the zealous preachers who ruled the 
a § 25, p ' 411 ‘ army insisted on their departure, as they had not 
taken the covenant. a 

§ 6. Cromwell was now in a difficult position. Bad weather 
prevented his ships keeping up their communication with him, 
sickness attacked his army, which suffered from want of provi¬ 
sions, and* he occupied a confined spot on the sea-shore near 
Dunbar, whence he could neither advance nor'retreat. lie was 
saved, it would appear, only by the mad conduct of the Scottish 
preachers. They came into the army in crowds, and by their 
furious harangues, all having the same purport, “ Surely the Lord 
hath delivered them into our hands,” they excited such a spirit in 
their disorderly levies, that their general, Leslie, b a 
b ^ 46, p ' 4 ~ 1 ' soldier of the German wars, was obliged, against 
his better judgment, to leave his strong post on the # hills and 
march down to attack the English. Cromwell hastened to 
meet him, and after a sharp battle killed or captured the greater 
part of his army on the 3d of September, 1650. Edinburgh 
at once surrendered, but the castle held out till near the end of 
the year. 

§ 7. Prince Charles was crowned King of Scotland at Scone, 
on the 1st of January, 1651; but he found himself exposed to so 
many humiliations—being obliged daily to attend long sermons 
where the “ sins of his father and his mother,” and fierce revilings 
of himself and his English adherents formed the only theme— 
that he determined to “put all upon a cast,” and invade England 
whilst his formidable opponent, Cromwell, was employed in re- 


Chapter I.] THE COMMONWEALTH. 431 

Prince Charles seeking a Throne. His Defeat and Escape. 

during the east of Scotland. His plans were well laid, and start¬ 
ing from Stirling with about 20,000 men, on the 31st of July, he 
hastily traversed Cumberland, Lancashire, and Shropshire, where 
it was hoped that Shrewsbury would be surrendered to them, and 
many English adherents would join; but this did not occur. 
The governor refused to admit them, and it was then proposed to 
march direct on London; but the army was now found so ex¬ 
hausted by its rapid movement that it was thought better to 
make for Worcester, a town that had always been loyal, and 
where they were received with great joy on the 22d of August, 
1651. 

§ 8. Cromwell marched with equal expedition as soon as he 
heard of the departure of the young king from Stirling. He 
compelled the country people to carry their arms for his troops, 
and sent for forces from every part of England, which were 
pushed forward under Lambert and Fleetwood. He reached 
Worcester on the 28th of August, and, his army being much 
stronger than that of his opponent, he hemmed in the royalists on 
every side. They had fortified the town and broken down the 
bridges over the Severn and the Teme, which occasioned some 
delay; but on the 3d of September, after some hours’ hard fight¬ 
ing, the parliamentarians gained what Cromwell called a “ crown¬ 
ing mercy,” and the hopes of the royalists were crushed for a 
while. The Duke of Hamilton (the brother of the nobleman be¬ 
headed in 1649) a was mortally wounded in the bat- 

. . a § 53, P- 424. 

tie. About 2,000 men fell in the field, whilst some 

10,000 were made prisoners, the country people in many cases 
rising on them in their flight as “ foreigners,” for so the Scots 
were still considered. The English royalists were either killed or 
had separated from them. Of these the Earl of Derby, long a 
formidable opponent of the parliament, # was taken and executed. 

§ 9. Cromwell soon returned to London. As he approached the 
city he was met by the entire parliament, the municipal authori¬ 
ties, and a vast concourse of people, and he was conducted with 
almost royal honors to Hampton Court Palace. The young king 
escaped to France after a series of almost miraculous preserva¬ 
tions, in which poor men like the Pendrells and the priest John 
Huddlestone showed that they were neither allured by the re¬ 
ward of £1,000 that was offered for his betrayal, nor frightened 
by the penalties of treason that were denounced against all who 


432 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 


[Book VIII. 

Scotland and Ireland subjugated. General Monk. 

sliould shelter him, and which there could be no doubt would be 
inflicted should they be discovered. The prince, who had shown 
much courage in battle, was cool and skilful in effecting his 
escape. He wandered about from place to place, sometimes hid¬ 
ing and sometimes disguised in the dress of a farmer or a servant. 
At length he reached Shoreham, on the coast of Sussex, and at 
about the middle of October [a.d. 1651] he crossed the Channel 
to France, in a coal vessel. He abandoned all thoughts of an¬ 
other invasion, and did not see England again until he was 
brought from the Continent to the throne of his father by Gen¬ 
eral Monk. 

§ 10. The loss of their army quite broke the spirit of the Scots, 
and after the storming of Dundee by Monk [Sept. 1651], who imi¬ 
tated Cromwell at Drogheda, the whole country quietly subsided 
into an English dependency, governed by commissioners from the 
parliament. The people were disarmed ; their laws were changed; 
estates were confiscated; preachers were silenced; and military 
men, of Cromwell’s own cast, garrisoned every place, living at 
free quarter, gathering taxes at the point of the sword, and 
ever ready to crush the first symptom of opposition. In this they 
were greatly aided by the Marquis of Argyle, the only man of any 
consideration who openly joined them, though many more sub¬ 
mitted to their fate as an unavoidable evil; but still bands of 
royalists constantly appeared, particularly in the Highlands, and 
taxed all the energy of Monk, who was the chief commander, to 
deal with them. He was originally a royalist, but being taken 
prisoner whilst serving with some Dish troops in England, he only 
saved his life by joining the parliamentarians. He was a man of 
dark, impenetrable character. Cromwell suspected him of keep¬ 
ing up a correspondence with the exiled king, yet he did not ven¬ 
ture to displace him, as he .was very popular with the soldiers under 
his command. 

§ 11. Ireland was reduced to subjection about the same time as 
Scotland, but had a much harder fate. The parliamentary com¬ 
missioners sent to govern it seem to have aimed at peopling the coun¬ 
try anew with English or Scottish settlers, and therefore they tried 
every means in their power to get rid of the native population. 
Thousands of the men who had been in arms were willing to 
serve foreign States, and they were allowed to save their lives 
by doing so, and to take as many more with them. The fertile 


Chapter I.] 


THE COMMONWEALTH. 


4:33 


Affairs in Ireland. Cromwell and the Parliament. 

lands that they had been driven from were divided among the 
“undertakers,” as they were called, that is, the persons who had 
lent money to the parliament to carry on the war, and the soldiers 
who had fought in it. Cromwell’s son Henry was appointed to 
the government in 1654, and his rule was lenient when compared 
with that of the commissioners. In 1659 he was recalled, when 
the government fell into the hands of Lord Broghill and Colonel 
Coote, and they, seeing that the restoration of the king was pro¬ 
bable, at once offered him the services of the Protestants in Ire¬ 
land on condition of being secured in their possessions. This 
offer was accepted, notwithstanding jfs injustice to thousands who 
had adhered to the royal cause, but some slight compensation was 
eventually given to a few among them. 

§ 12. At the desire of CromweU, an amnesty was granted early in 
the year 1652, by which he gained favor even in the eyes of the 
royalists; and as he took no active part in a naval war that soon 
after broke out with the Dutch, he and his council of officers 
employed themselves in augmenting the discontent with which 
the parliament was now everywhere regarded, not only for their 
tyranny, but for their clinging to power and place in spite of 
every remonstrance. They had, at the instance of Cromwell, in 
November, 1651, decided that the present parliament should cease 
in November, 1654; but they continued to act as if they contem¬ 
plated no dissolution, and considered their power to be per¬ 
petual. To explain this, a brief glance at their four years’ admin¬ 
istration is necessary. 

§ 13. The soldiers throughout the war had prided themselves on 
an honorable observance of the terms that they granted to their 
opponents, and now that the war was over, the parliament loudly 
professed their intention of upholding a legal government, under 
which every man should have a fair and open trial before the 
ordinary tribunals, let the cause be what it might, either for life 
or property. But scarcely were they in power before they contra¬ 
dicted all their professions by erecting what they were pleased to 
call “ high courts of justice,” which dealt even more hardly than 
courts-martial with all brought before them. 1 As one instance, 

i The president of these tribunals was usually John Lisle, a judge at the trial of the 
late king, and a commissioner of the great seal. His harsh bearing to the prisoners 
rendered him very odious, and he was assassinated soon after the restoration of 
royalty. 


19 


434 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book YIII. 


Tyranny of the Parliament. Unpopularity of the Parliament. Accusations. 


twenty-four persons were tried by one of these new tribunals for 
a mere riot at Norwich, and twenty of them were executed. And 
they went beyond the precedent of all former tyranny by passing 
an act which made words alone treason. Even the Tudors had 
thought it needful to affirm that something had been done as well 
as said before they declared a man a traitor. Under that act they 
put on trial for his life John Lilburn, 1 a Leveller, 11 
a § 5~, p. 424 . h a d dared to write of their proceedings as they 

deserved, in a pamphlet called “England’s New Chains Discovered.” 
They made the mistake of bringing him before a jury instead of 
a “high court of justice,” b and, after a most spirited 
b § 14, p ' 433 ' defence, he was acquitted. He was, however, marked 
for ruin; and soon afterward, having a quarrel with Sir Arthur 
Haselrigge, one of the council, he was accused of libelling him, 
and was, by a special act, banished for life without even a hearing. 2 

§ 14. There was another matter that exposed th£ parliament to 
much odium, and that was their excessive egotism and pride, and 
the public plunder that they shared. One of their earliest acts had 
been to lodge the Council of State c in the palace of 
c§ 2, p.428. Whitehall? and devote £io,000 worth of the late 

king’s rich goods to furnishing the rooms of “my Lords,” as their 


councillors were called, as they held the political relations to 
parliament that the House of Lords did formerly. This was 
resented as an extravagance by their own party, for all that pro¬ 
perty had been ordered to be sold towards paying the public debts, 
which were of vast amount, and it was regarded by the royalists 
as little less than sacrilege. Also, like other men placed in tem¬ 
porary power, many of them “ hasted to grow rich ” at the public 
expense. Lands to the value of £2,000 a year were settled on 
Bradshaw, the president of the Council. The same amount was 
d § 37 416 sett ^ e< ^ on Skippon, d and the same on the family of 

Ireton.® Haselrigge received so much of the church 
§ 2, p. 4~s. | andg north that he was commonly known as 


1 He had been a London apprentice, and bore a whipping for circulating some books 
offensive to the Star-chamber with such stoicism that he received from his party the 
name of “ Sturdy John.” He served in the parliamentary army, but was so insubor¬ 
dinate that he was always in difficulties, and it was said of him that if he were alone in 
the world, “ John would fight Lilburn, and Lilburn, John.” 

2 He returned when Cromwell expelled the parliament, and addressed to him his 
“ Banished Man’s Plea,” which was unfavorably received. He was again tried, and 
though acquitted, was kept in prison in Jersey for some years. At length he was 
liberated, and received a small pension for his subsistence, but died soon afterward. 


Chapter I.] 

Heavy Taxation. 


THE COMMONWEALTH. 


435 


1 § 9, P- 2. 


The Long Parliament dispersed. 

the Bishop of Durham; and Richmond Park was given to the 
citizens of London. Cromwell, also, was well rewarded by his 
friends, and before he openly seized on the supreme power, Hampton 
Court and £7,000 a year had been granted to him, beside his army 
pay of £10 a day, and his salary as lord-lieutenant of Ireland. 
But as many looked up to him for preferment, and all saw in him 
a probable future ruler, his aggrandizement was less offensive 
than that of any of his colleagues. 

§ 15. Whilst the parliament men thus grew rich, and manifestly 
remained in power for that very purpose, the people groaned 
under a weight of taxation such as they had never felt before, and 
the merchants suffered vast losses from their ships being captured 
by privateers fitted out from the Stilly Isles, a Man, 1 
or Jersey, where the royalists still maintained them¬ 
selves. They were not reduced until the close of the year 1651. 
Very shortly afterward a more formidable war. broke out with the 
Dutch, commencing ostensibly from a quarrel about the honor of 
the flag, but really in resentment of the shelter afforded to the 
royalists. Several desperate actions were fought, in which Ad¬ 
miral Blake and General Monk greatly distinguished 
themselves ; and the vessels of the “ ship-money fleet,” b 
though chiefly manned by the Anabaptists, 0 fulfilled 
their original purpose of chastising the Hollanders, who were 
at last obliged to sue for peace. 

§.16. From the first day that the parliament met after the exe¬ 
cution of the king, they had been told from all quarters that they 
had already been in being too long, and had been urged to make 
preparations for their own dissolution. But this they had no 
inclination-to do ; and until their masters, the army, remonstrated 
with them, they hardly vouchsafed a reply. Then they named 
the period of three years, as we have seen, at the end of which 
they would certainly separate. This was looked upon as a studied 
defiance; but still Cromwell pretended to hesitate. At last, taking 
a body of musketeers with him, he entered the House on the 20th 
of April, 1653, and violently expelled the members while over¬ 
whelming them with reproaches. Then, with the key of the par¬ 
liament chamber in his pocket, he walked back to Whitehall, the 
absolute master -of the three kingdoms. Then he proceeded to 

i This belonged to the Earl of Derby,® and his countess defended it 
after hi; death, till treachery in her garrison obliged her to surrender. a % 9 ’ p ‘ 4iU 


b § 18, p. 407. 
: § 7, p. 332. 


436 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book YIII. 

Cromwell seizes Supreme Power. The “ Barebones Parliament.” 

disperse the Council by a peremptory order, when he was com¬ 
pelled to listen to some plain talk from Bradshaw and others. 
He next published a justification of his proceedings, which was 
well received, in which he declared, with well-feigned sincerity, 
that he had done it all unwillingly, and declared that “ he had 
prayed the Lord to slay him rather than put him on that work.” 

§ 17. The Dictator (for such, in fact, Cromwell now was) re¬ 
placed the Council of State by one of only twelve members, of his 
own selection, and then, in his own name, summoned about 140 
persons, described as “ men faithful, fearing God, and hating 
covetousness,” to meet as a parliament, which they accordingly 
did, on the 4th of July, 1653. This assembly became commonly 
known as the “Little Parliament” and as the “ Barebones Parlia¬ 
ment,” after one of its noisiest talkers, Praise God Barbone, a 
leather-seller of London. The very name of this assembly has 
ever since been a term of reproach, and yet several useful measures 
were proposed in it, only they were lost sight of among the ab¬ 
surdities of some of the members. Francis Rous, the Speaker, 
though he extolled Cromwell as greater than Moses and Joshua 
combined, wished to see a government “under God alone,” as 
with the Jews of old; whilst others would have burnt the records 
in the Tower as badges of slavery; and the “men of high flight” 
desired to abolish “ magistracy, ministry, and law,” as not needed 
among the Saints, as they ridiculously styled the republican party. 
Tiiey passed about five months in this idle talk, wdien Cromwell, 
seeing that they were not likely to forward his ambitious views, 
or to serve the State properly, induced a few of their number to 
resign their powers into his hands, when, on the loth of Decem¬ 
ber, he expelled the rest by a company of soldiers, as he had done 
their predecessors. And so it was that Oliver Cromwell’s am¬ 
bition to serve himself or his country as supreme ruler culminated 
in absolute usurpation. 

§ 18. What was Cromwell’s motive at that time in assuming su¬ 
preme power is yet an unsettled question. Some regard Cromwell 
as a selfish usurper. The larger portion of intelligent students 
look upon him as a wise patriot, who, perceiving that the people 
were not sufficiently educated for self-government, took advantage 
of his own popularity to establish, in his own person, a govern¬ 
ment that should-save them from anarchy, and secure to them 
order, peace, and prosperity. 


CnAPTER II.] 


THE COMMONWEALTH. 

Cromwell made Lord Protector of England. 


437 


CHAPTEE n. 

the Protectorate, [a.d. 1653 to 1660.] 

§ 1. When Cromwell had received the resignation of power 
from the parliament, he called a council of officers and other per¬ 
sons, when it was resolved to “ have a Commonwealth in a single 
person, which person should be the Lord-General Oliver Crom¬ 
well, under the title and dignity of Lord Protector of England, 
Scotland, and Ireland, and the dominions and territories thereunto 
belonging,” who was to be assisted in the government by a council 
of “ godly, able, and discreet persons,” not more than twenty-one 
in number. It was decreed that the supreme legislative authority 
should “be and reside in the Lord Protector and the people as¬ 
sembled in parliament,” which should be imperial in its character, 
and not to exceed four hundred members for England (including 
Wales), thirty for Scotland, and thirty for Ireland. With these 
royal functions Cromwell was invested [December 16,1653] by the 
notables of the realm, while he stood in a suit of black velvet, by 
a chair of state, set in the midst Qf the Court of Chancery. There 
he took an oath to rule according to the terms of a constitution, 
written on parchment, called the Instrument of Government. He 
was now, in fact, monarch of England, and he aspired to the 
crown of a constitutional sovereign, with many of the prerogatives 
for which Charles the First contended, and was beheaded by 
Cromwell. 

§ 2. It was agreed that a parliament should not meet until nine 
months after Cromwell’s accession to power, and that during that 
time he and the Council should rule absolutely. Long before 
that time Cromwell found that he had disgusted many of his old 
associates, who now justly reproached him to his face with aiming 
*at arbitrary power. He committed some of them to the Tower, 
but this did not hinder their opinions from spreading; and when 
the parliament assembled [Sept. 3,1654], they at once began to ques¬ 
tion his authority. He sent for them to Whitehall, and reproached 
them for their conduct, telling them that the Instrument that made 
them a Parliament made him also Protector. He declared that he 
had rights and powers independent of them, and he therefore 
would not allow any to sit among them who refused to sign a 
declaration that they would not attempt any alteration in the 


43S 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book VIII. 

Cromwell plays the Autocrat. England’s Power respected. Method of Rule. 

government. Thus he got rid of a great number, but those who 
remained were found little more compliant. They persisted in 
debating the provisions of the Instrument, questioned much that 
had been done in the nine months’ interval before their assembly, 
and rejected, by a very large majority, a motion to make the pro¬ 
tectorship hereditary in his family. At length [January 31, 1655] 
he summoned them before him, made a long speech, in which lie 
bitterly reproached them, among many other things, w r ith not pro¬ 
viding pay for the army, with the intent that the soldiers should 
thus be rendered mutinous and dangerous, and concluded: “It is 
not for the profit of these nations, nor for the common and public 
good, for you to continue here any longer, and therefore I do 
declare unto you that I do dissolve this parliament.” 

§ 3. The Protector was not blind to the growing discontents, 
and he felt that something must be done to give prestige to 
his rule. So he sent out two strong fleets, one of which, under 
Admiral Blake, rendered good service by chastising the Bar- 
e . n bary pirates ; a the other, under Admirals Penn and 

a g 19, p. 4(Jo. 

Venables, captured the Island of Jamaica from the 
Spaniards. The war was entirely unprovoked by the latter—in 
fact, they had ever kept on good terms with the parliament, and 
had even condescended to purchase the king’s pictures from them. 
But it answered Cromwell’s avowed purpose of “making the 
name of Englishmen terrible abroad,” and the French king en¬ 
tered into an alliance with him, an example that other sovereigns 
followed. English troops were in consequence sent over to Flan¬ 
ders, where they captured Dunkirk, and held it till alter the res¬ 
toration of monarchy. Feeling his power, Cromwell was accus¬ 
tomed to speak haughtily of it, saying that a ship of war was the 
best ambassador, and that he could make the thunders of his can¬ 
non heard at Rome, and even on the Neva. He really made the 
power of England felt and feared more extensively than evef 
before. 

§ 4. But if the foreign career of Cromwell was thus successful, 
it was not so at home, except when he dropped all pretence of legal 
government, and ruled avowedly by the sword, with a standing 
army of 30,000 men at his command. The dismissal of his par¬ 
liament occasioned such general discontent among the republicans, 
that the hopes of the royalists revived, and preparations were 
made for a rising in many parts of the country on the ensuing 


439 


Chapter II.] THE COMMONWEALTH. 

Cromwell’s dealings with Insurgents and Conspirators. A new Parliament. 

18tli of April, 1G55. The impatience of Sir Joseph Wagstaffe, an 
officer of the old royal army, anticipated this. Without waiting for 
his confederates from Hampshire, he marched into Salisbury on 
the morning of the 11th of March, seized the judges, who were 
there on circuit, and the sheriff, and proposed to hang them, by 
way of committing his followers (about 200 horsemen) beyond 
hope of pardon. His counsel horrified his associates, Penrud- 
dock, Groves, and other Wiltshire gentlemen, who were quite un¬ 
used to war, and they absolutely refused to follow it. Instead, 
they retreated into Devonshire, where they found no one prepared 
to join them. They were soon obliged to surrender, and were 
executed; but Wagstaffe made his escape. A rising in the north 
was equally abortive; but Cromwell made these attempts the pre¬ 
text for acting with extreme rigor against all who had ever been 
of the royal party. Without any inquiry as to whether they had 
given any countenance to these risings, he seized on one-tenth of 
all then property; and he forbade the expelled clergy to act as 
schoolmasters, though the majority of them had no other means 
of living, for the fifth of the value of then benefices, which the 
parliament professed to grant them, was paid but in very few 
instances bv their successors. The Levellers a and 

« • 1 • ^ lwlt 

republicans, who were also conspiring against him, 
he treated with less severity; but to guard against the machi¬ 
nations of the various parties he now divided the country into 
fourteen districts, which his majors-general ruled with absolute 
power. 

§ 5. This state of things continued until the middle of the fol¬ 
lowing year [a.d. 1656], when, from the increasing dissatisfaction, 
he was obliged to summon a new parliament [Sept. 17], and this 
he endeavored to make compliant by adopting the extraordinary 
course of allowing none to sit, though duly elected, without being 
first formally approved by himself. Of course many were thus 
excluded, and a body of ninety-eight of them published a stinging 
Remonstrance, in which they denounced those who had been ap¬ 
proved, as “ betrayers of the liberties of England, and adherents 
to the capital enemies of the commonwealth.” It declared them 
to be in no proper sense a parliament, seeing that they sat in daily 
terror of the Protector’s armed men, and dared not debate freely 
or oppose his usurpation and oppression. The assembled body 
fully justified this description. They drew up a fresh constitution 


440 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 


[Book VIII. 


b § 7, p. 332. 


Cromwell’s Royal State. Popular Discontent. He fears Assassination. 

of government, called the Humble Petition and Advice, which 
confirmed Cromwell in power, allowed him to name his successor, 
and to create a House of Peers. They also proposed to give him 
the title of king; but Lambert a and other officers of 
a § 2, p. * the army so vehemently opposed this that he was 
obliged to decline it. But he was again inaugurated with regal 
pomp in Westminster Hall, the coronation-chair being brought 
from the Abbey for the purpose [June 26, 1657]. 

§ 6. This was the final quarrel between Cromwell and many of 
the men who had helped him to his exalted position. Lambert re¬ 
fused to take the oaths to him, and Harrison, one of the most active 
officers, was sent to the Tower on the charge of at¬ 
tempting an Anabaptist b insurrection. Many of this 
party, which abounded in the navy as well as in the army, had 
already opened a communication with the exiled king ; others were 
taken into the pay of Spain, in revenge for Cromwell’s 
o § 3, p. 438. a gg ress } on . c anc [ Sexby, one of these, distributed a 
pamphlet called “ Killing no Murder,” in which the assassination 
of the Protector was recommended as a duty. Sexby was seized 
and condemned to death. He poisoned himself in the Tower, but 
this was turned into a reproach to Cromwell, as if he had thus 
got rid of a man whom he dared not execute. From this time 
forward all accounts agree that the Protector showed great dread 
of assassination. He doubled his guards; wore armor under his 
ordinary clothing; never went anywhere and returned by the 
same route, and seldom occupied the same room two nights in 
succession. 

§ 7. To add to Cromwell’s mortification, when his parliament 
met again [January 20, 1658] they refused to recognize the new 


d § 5, p. 439. 
* § 9, p. 431. 


peei-s, d and were dismissed in a fortnight. The ex¬ 
iled King of Scotland e was prompt to take advan¬ 


tage of the discontent that this measure occasioned. 
He collected a body of troops in Flanders, and made ready to 
embark for England; but the Protector’s ships watched the ports, 
and the only result was that Sir Henryk Slingsby, an old royalist 
officer, and Dr. Hewitt, a clergyman, were seized whilst arranging 
a rising, and beheaded. But the great change was now at hand. 
Cromwell had suffered much from fever and ague, and was too 
ill to address his parliament when they met. He grew gradually 
worse, and at last he died at Whitehall, on the 3d of September, 


Chapter II.] 


THE COMMONWEALTH. 


441 


Death of Cromwell. His Character. 


His Successor. 


1658, the anniversary of his great victories at Worcester and 
Dunbar. 

§ 8. Oliver Cromwell left a name that will not be forgotten, 
though not deserving all the praise or all the blame that has been 
heaped upon it. That he had great skill in war, and equally 
great skill in penetrating other men’s thoughts whilst lib con¬ 
cealed his own, is undeniable. It is also probable that he was 
not naturally bloodthirsty, though he had no scruple at shedding 
blood when he thought his own or the State’s purposes required 
it; but there seems no reason for styling him an able governor, 
for he appears to have thought that he could rule a nation by just 
the same violent means as he employed to reduce a mutinous regi¬ 
ment. His iron hand repeatedly crushed resistance at heme ; but 
it was as constantly renewed, whilst his popularity, with even his 
»wn sect in religion and politics, declined. It might very prob¬ 
ably have driven him from his seat, had his life been much 


a § 5, p. 439. 


longer. 

§ 9. CromweU was in the sixtieth year of his age when he died. 
Just before he expired he expressed a desire that his son Richard 
should be his successor. This desire was made a binding obli¬ 
gation, according to the terms of the new constitution, a 
and Richard was received as such with all the usual 
signs of acquiescence. He was solemnly proclaimed to be Lord 
Protector, first in London and Westminster, and then in all the 
cities and towns in the realm, including Dunkirk and the Ameri¬ 
can plantations. 1 The young Protector was in a short time so 
suddenly displaced, that the royalists gave him the name of 
“ Tumble-down Dick.” 

§ 10. The overthrow of Richard was, in fact, a military revo¬ 
lution, which ended in restoring the king, though not 
so intended. Lambert b and the other chief officers 
had borne the elder Cromwell’s supremacy merely because they 


b § 5, p. 439. 


1 Sir William Berkeley, the Governor of Virginia, was a zealous royalist, and that 
province remained loyal. When republican government was proclaimed in England, 
the colonists boldly recognized Charles, who was crowned at Scone, a 8> p . 43t> . 
as their sovereign. They even sent a message to him in Flanders, 
inviting him to come over and be their king. He contemplated doing so when he 
was recalled to England. In gratitude to those loyal colonists, he caused the arms 
of Virginia to be quartered with those of England, Scotland, and Ireland, as an inde¬ 
pendent member of the empire. From this circumstance Virginia received the name 
of The Old Dominion. 

19* 


44-2 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 


[Book VIII. 

The end of the Protectorate. A Royalist Insurrection. 

could not shake it off; but they had no fear of Richard, and soon 
showed that they meant to displace him. To conciliate them, 
Lambert was recalled and placed at the head of the army; but at 
the same time it was resolved to call a parliament, as a curb on 
the soldiery. When the houses met [January 29, 1659] it was 
found that many royalists had been elected, and not one-half of 
the new-made peers attended. The army clamored for their pay, 
which had fallen into arrear. Instead of voting it, the Houses 
occupied themselves with debates whether they should recognize 
Richard as Protector. Finally, a council of army officers com¬ 
pelled him to dismiss the parliament [April 22], and then they 
dismissed the Protector, and took the management of affairs into 
their own hands. They recalled the members of the parliament 
expelled by Cromwell in 1653, a appointed a new 
a § 17, p. 435. Q ounc ^i Qtatc, and placed Fleetwood (Richard’s 
brother-in-law) at the head of the army. He was a dull, heavy 
man, the mere tool of Lambert, as Fairfax had been 
U§48 - P - 423 ' to Cromwell. b 

§ 11. A royalist rising in Cheshire followed this action. It was 
led by Sir George Booth, a Presbyterian, but was soon crushed by 
Lambert. The parliament, thinking all danger over, and forget¬ 
ting to whom they owed their power, then proposed to reduce a 
large number of the troops. Lambert, Desborough, and others 
opposed this, and were voted out of their commands; and Fleet- 
wood, instead of being retained as commander-in-chief, had 
General Monk and five others associated with him [October 12b 
as commissioners to govern all the forces. But the soldiers in 
London refused to obey their new officers. Headed by Lambert, 
they drove out the parliament the very next day, when he ap¬ 
pointed a Committee of Safety to carry on the government. 

§ 12. Early in the next year [a.d. 1660], Monk, who had through 
all these changes retained his command in Scotland, by hypo¬ 
critical pretensions of attachment to republicanism, crossed the 
border in compliance with an invitation from parliament to come 
to London, when Lambert attempted to make terms with him. 
Monk, however, who was courted and feared by both parties, kept 
his own counsel, and marched steadily forward, professing that 
his only object was to restore the parliament, which he accom¬ 
plished without difficulty or bloodshed. But he made a most 
material change in it, by intimating his wish that the members 


Chapter II.] THE COMMONWEALTH. 

Doings of General Monk. The Royalists in Power. A King proclaimed. 

who had been excluded in 1648, for being favorable to the king, a 
should be restored also. His will was law, and they a § 54 p ^ 
accordingly took their seats. A new Council of 
State was formed; many royalist prisoners were released; Monk 
and Montague were appointed commanders-in-chief of all the 
forces by sea and land, and the restored parliament dissolved 
itself, after having appointed a new assembly to meet on the 25th 
of April. The government was now in the hands of the royalists, 
ready to do the bidding of Monk, who had been one of that 
party before his interest led him to be a parliamentarian. He 
was ready to become a king’s man, or a devil’s man, or anything 
that best promised to promote his interest. 

§ 13. All parties now saw that their sole chance of escape from 
a mere military tyranny, under an infamous chief, was to recall 
the king, and the only man from whom any formidable opposi¬ 
tion was to be expected was the bold and active Lambert. Re¬ 
fusing to pledge himself to peaceable behavior, he was sent to the 
Tower. He escaped, and appointed a gathering of his friends at 
Edgehill, where the civil war had commenced; b but b p 41g _ 
before he could reach it with some troops of horse, he 
was overtaken near Daventry [April 21, 1660]. His men refused 
to fight against their old associates, and he was made prisoner. 
Four days after this the new parliament assembled. Sir Har- 
bottle Grimstone, one -of those who had protested against the 
mock parliament of 1656, c was chosen speaker, and c§4 p 438 
the peers met in their House as before the war, the ^ p 44Q 
lords appointed by Cromwell d not venturing to ap¬ 
pear. 

§ 14. On the 1st of May, Sir John Granville, who had been for 
some time negotiating between Monk and Charles for the restora¬ 
tion of monarchy in England, presented letters from the fugitive 
King of Scotland, then at Breda, in Holland, which Monk, yet 
cautiously wearing the mask, caused to be laid before parliament, 
with an intimation of his ignorance of the contents. One was a 
letter from Charles offering a free general pardon, with only such 
exceptions as the parliament itself should choose to make, and invit- 
0 ing all to return to their allegiance. This Declaration of Breda, as 
it was called, was accepted with joy by the parliament The king 
was proclaimed [May 8, 1660] at Westminster gate, as Charles the 
Second, and a body of six lords and twelve commoners was de- 


444 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 


[Book VIII 


Restoration of the Stuarts. Charles the Second’s Reception in England. 

spatched to him at the Hague to invite his immediate return. 
They were most graciously received, though several of the Presby¬ 
terian ministers, whose furious sermons had done so much to bring 
about the war, accompanied them. They had, however, been 
anticipated by Montague, who, on his own authority, proclaimed 
the king in the fleet before it was done in London, himself firing 
the first gun, and crying, “ God bless the king! ” to which his 
sailors heartily responded, although they had throughout the war 
been reckoned more thorough republicans even than the soldiers. 
They then set sail for Holland, where the Duke of York, Charles’s 
brother, was invited on board as their admiral, and, at their own 
desire, he changed the names of several of the ships, substituting 
“ Prince ” for “Protector ” etc. 

§ 15. The Dutch, who of late, from fear of Cromwell, had 
shown little kindness for the exiled king, were now so profuse in 
their civilities that he was in a manner constrained to remain with 
them a few days ; but at last he put to sea in the “ Prince ,” and 
landed at Dover on the following day. The infamous Monk ob¬ 
sequiously advanced even into the sea to meet him; and the king’s 
three days’ journey to London was one triumphal progress. He 
reached his capital on his birthday [May 29, 1660], and was so 
rapturously received that he smilingly remarked, that it must 
surely be his own fault that he had stayed away so long, for he 
saw no one who did not protest that he had ever wished for his 
return. And so it was that poor England had the curse of a Stuart 
monarch again thrust upon her. 


CHAPTER III. 

SOCIETY DURING THE FIRST HALF OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

§ 1. As at the close of our record of the Tudor dynasty, so nov*^ 
at the close of the interregnum of the Stuart dynasty, so much 
has been necessarily said, in the account of the civil and military 
transactions of the period, concerning religious matters, that little 
need be noted upon that topic separately. 

§ 2. We have seen that Protestantism, after severe struggles, 
overthrew the more ancient State religion in Great Britain, when 



THE COMMONWEALTH. 


445 


CnAPTF.Tl III.] 


Religious Matters. The Growth of Popular Liberty. 

the independence of thought and action which that struggle de¬ 
veloped created a variety of theological opinions among the Pro¬ 
testants themselves, which crystallized into separate and often con¬ 
tending sects. 

§ 3. The gloomy and implacable theological system framed by 
John Calvin, of Geneva, known as “ Calvinism,” was the doctrinal 
foundation of Puritanism* in England and Scot- ^ 
land. Joh^%nox, a disciple of Calvin, was its chief a 1 ’ P 
disseminator in the latter country, while propagandists from the 
Continentgave its color to the belief of the great ^ 6 p 331 
body of the Protestants in the British islands. Its 
eminent dogma concerning predestination permeated the Anglican 
Church, and finds obscure expression in the Thirty- 

• , . . T . ® 8 O* P* OOl. 

nine Articles.® 

§ 4. All through the period of the Commonwealth, when 
“Popery and prelacy” were suppressed, the Calvinists, under 
different names, such as Presbyterians, Congregationalists, and 
Independents, each struggled for the mastery in Church and State. 
The history of those struggles, and of the whole body of Puritans 
against the Anglican and Romish Churches, during the time of 
the Stuarts, including the interregnum, is a most interesting chap¬ 
ter in the chronicles of the religious experience of the world—a 
chapter too large to be even epitomized here. In fact, it is a 
study more interesting than profitable, for it is only a record of 
bigotry, superstition, fanaticism, intolerance, craft, and crime, 
doing violence to liberty in the name of the sweet religion of 
Jesus of Nazareth. 

§ 5. The period we are considering is a most interesting one to 
the patriot and statesman, as a remarkable epoch in the great 
struggle between the king and the nobility—between monarchy 
and aristocracy—between autocracy and democracy—which had 
been going on in England for more than four hundred years; for 
a notion of political freedom had survived from the time of the 
Saxons as a popular instinct. The earlier Normans and all the 
Tudors were almost absolute monarchs, yet compelled to feel a 
little of the restraints of the popular will. This feeling had been 
notably manifested by the fact that between the thirteenth and 
the seventeenth centuries the monarchs had con- 

d § 1G, p. lbO. 

firmed Magna Gharta d thirty-two times, together with 

new statutes to support and develop it. Step by step the people, 


446 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 


[Book YIII. 


Csesarism warned. Effects of the Keformation. English Liberties. 

more and more potentially felt in the House of Commons, had 
assumed their rightful sovereignty. And at the very time when 
the royal bigot, Charles the First, was asserting on the scaffold 
that the people had nothing to do with govem- 
a § 58, P. 427. menta _ in other wor ds, had no political right— 

the gleaming axe of his. executioner was both a sharp aigu- 
ment against his proposition, and a proclamation that a mon¬ 
arch, to be tolerated, must henceforth be contented with the 
subordinate office of executor of the popular will. It was a notice 
to Csesarism to cease its pretensions, under the penalty of final 
destruction. 

§ 6. Henry the Eighth was an absolute monarch, yet in his time 
came that grand insurrection of the human intellect against spi¬ 
ritual domination known as the Reformation, which assumed a 
religious form, while the scope of its intentions and operations 
was as wide as the word “liberty” could define it. It stnick a 
fatal blow at absolutism. It assailed slavery in every form, de¬ 
manding freedom for every human soul from the thraldom of 
Church and State. It emboldened patriots and made monarchs 
more discreet. It developed a John Pym'> in the 
b § 31, p. 413. Long Parliament in 1640,° as the first of the outspoken 
c § 27, P . 411. championg of the sovereignty of the people in their 
struggle against the arrogant assumptions of the royal prerogative. 

Then mighty abuses were abated or abolished, among 
d § 6, P . 354. t]iem the Court of High Commission,* established by 

Elizabeth, by which all spiritual jurisdiction was vested in the 


crown. 

§ 7. When the commonwealth was succeeded by restored mon¬ 
archy, the British constitution (which is only the codified acts of 
parliament, and therefore flexible) and the government and statute 
laws had all assumed the modem forms, which guarantee to the 
subject or citizen whatever is included under the general title of 
English liberties. Justice for the subject was as well assured, in 
theory at least, as privilege for the monarch. The crown and 
sceptre had become subordinated to the parliament. Personal 
rule was ended, and the people of Great Britain had arisen to 
their rightful position of a controlling and permanent power in 
the State. The age of the civil war and the commonwealth was 
that of the birth of genuine democracy in England. Humanity 
and mercy took the place of cruelty and implacability in the 


Chatter III.] THE COMMONWEALTH. 447 

The National Industry. Evil effects of Monopolies. Commerce. 

punishment of offences, and a clearer image of true Cliristianity 
was stamped upon society in all its features. 

§ 8. During the period we are considering, the national indus¬ 
try had gradually increased in productiveness, in spite of the stu¬ 
pidity of the monarchs and co-legislators. The Dutch had be¬ 
come successful and damaging rivals of the English in commerce 
and navigation. The narrow, dog-in-the-manger policy of the 
British government, and its absurd nursing of monopolies of its 
own creation, had given to the Dutch free system of trade and 
navigation a great advantage. At the beginning of the reign 
of James the First [1603] the Dutch, in the ordinary trade between 
them and the English, employed between 500 and 600 of their 
own vessels, while not a tenth of that number of English bottoms 
were so employed. And it was not until near the close of the 
sixteenth century, that an English vessel made a commercial voy¬ 
age [1591] to the East Indies. Its success caused the formation 
of the famous English East India Company in the year 1600, 
Which, in the course of a generation afterwards, vastly extended 
the area of the commerce of Great Britain. That company for a 
long time exercised political functions with imperial sway, and 
gave, in the course of time, vast territories in Central India to the 
control of the British government. Its political power ceased only 
in 1858; and in 1861 the India House—its palace in London—built 
in 1726, was pulled down. 

§ 9. Other mercantile monopolies were created and fostered, 
but the East India Company overshadowed them all. There were 
also manufacturing monopolies which enriched a few at the ex¬ 
pense of the many. Fisheries in the northern seas for whales, 
walruses, and seals were established, and were fostered by the 
government during James’s reign [a.d. 1608 to 1625]. In 1615, 
these fisheries employed 134 vessels; and full 200 more, with an 
average 1 urden of 15,000 tons, were engaged in the cod-fishery 
on the banks of Newfoundland. Trade in wool and a ^ p 3g2 
woollen cloths continued to be the staple a of the 
kingdom; but the conceited king, by an illegal proclamation in 
1608, deranged the whole business, and greatly injured the pros¬ 
perity of his realm. During nine years [a.d. 1613 to 1622] the 
exports and imports of Great Britain, taken together, had increased 
in value only £311,265. The exports and imports amounted in 
1613 to £4,628,586, and in 1622 to £4,939,751. The latter sum, 


448 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 


[Book VIII. 

The Royal Navy. The Laboring Class. Arts and Manufactures. 

or $34,098,855, was about the twentieth part of the value of the 
imports and exports of Great Britain in 1869. 

§ 10. And while the commercial marine of Great Britain was 
comparatively small, the royal navy was also weak. At the 
accession of James it numbered only thirteen ships ; at his death, 
about twenty years later, it consisted of twenty-four. During 
Cromwell’s administration the navy was somewhat increased, and 
its power was felt more than at any other period. a 

' ' ° ' The war-vessels were often engaged in the suppres¬ 

sion of piracies which interfered with the colonization of America, 
that went on vigorously from the early part of the seventeenth 
century. That colonization was especially active during the 
reign of Charles the First, when Church and State in England at¬ 
tempted to bind soul and body in intolerable fetters. The com¬ 
merce of Great Britain was benefited by colonization, and a new 
article of trade—tobacco—was introduced from Barbadoes and 
Virginia. Sugar was also cultivated in Barbadoes. 

§ 11. From the reign of Elizabeth until the accession of Charles 
the Second, few improvements of much account took place in the 
common arts of life. Several other countries then surpassed Eng¬ 
land in agriculture, gardening, and manufactures, particularly 
Holland and the Netherlands, the most industrious countries in 
Europe. English writers of the day spoke of the working popu¬ 
lation of England as “idle, stubborn, and surly.” The manufac¬ 
ture of “new sorts of stuffs” was introduced at the middle of the 
century, during the Commonwealth. Great efforts were made to 
firmly establish silk-weaving in England so early as the beginning 
of James the First’s reign, who recommended the planting of mul¬ 
berry-trees and the growing of silk-worms. Linens were chiefly 
manufactured in families. The coal of England first began to be 
used in the arts and for domestic purposes in the reign of Charles 
the First; and in James’s time hackney coaches were introduced, 
which the absurd king proclaimed against as annoyances to him¬ 
self, the queen, and the nobility, by obstructing the streets. 

§ 12. At this period England became noted for its manufacture 
of cannon. Charles the First had over 000 pieces cast in the forest 
of Dean for the States-General of Holland. Glass was also exten¬ 
sively manufactured under the privileges of a monopoly. Pocket- 
watches were first made in England in 1658; and the East India 
Company caused large improvements in the art of ship-building. 


449 


CnAPTER III.] THE COMMONWEALTH. 

Coinage and Banking. Dwellings and Furniture. 

Before its time few merchant ships exceeded 150 tons burden. 

In 1610 that company built a ship of 1,000 tons; and a war-ship 
of 1,400 tons was launched at about the same time. 

§ 13. There were some changes in the values of coin during this 
period; and the legal rate of interest fixed in 1571 was continued 
until 1624, when it ^as reduced to eight per cent. This rate con¬ 
tinued until the Commonwealth, when it was further reduced. A 
system of banking was introduced after Charles the First robbed 
the London merchants of cash to the amount of $1,000,000, which 
they had in gold, in the usual place of deposit in the Koyal Mint, 
in the Tower. After that the goldsmiths became bankers, and 
made the business profitable. They kept the gold of their cus- » 
tomers in strong iron chests prepared for the purpose. That sys¬ 
tem of banking was begun in 1645. Others afterward went into 
the business; and these private banks were the only depositories 
of gold until the Bank of England was established, in 1604. 

§ 14. The houses of royalty and the nobility, during the first 
half of the seventeenth century, were furnished in a style of splen¬ 
dor and comfort not since surpassed, and never before equalled. 
Crimson velvet and cloth of gold were common coverings for fur¬ 
niture, and entered largely into the composition of curtains of 
every kind. Batin was also extensively used for the same purposes, 
and carpets were sometimes made of crimson velvet. Paper and 
leather hangings were invented early in the seventeenth century; 
and the walls of the wealthy were now enriched with the paint¬ 
ings of the most eminent artists on the Continent, such as Rubens, 
Vandyke, Teniers, Rembrandt, and Holbein. China-ware, as 
East India dishes and ornaments that were brought from the 
Orient were called, became quite common in the dwellings of the 
rich. Carpets were not yet generally seen as coverings, for floors, 1 * 
for down to the period of the Commonwealth mat- # p 3g4 
tings and rushes b were used for that purpose, even b§1 ^ p ‘ 384 
in the dwellings of royalty. 

§ 15. The costume of both sexes of Elizabeth’s later years con¬ 
tinued in vogue far into the reign of James. The portrait of his 
queen c resembles that of Elizabeth in attire, having § ^ p S8a 
the same high ruff and long bodice waist. There 
was greater extravagance displayed in materials. John Taylor, 
the “ Water Poet,” thus alludes to the fact in censuring the waste¬ 
fulness of those who 


450 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 


Fashionable Costume. Effeminate Habits. 


[Book VIII. 

A Royal Coxcomb. 


“ Wear a farm in shoe-strings edged with gold, 

And spangled garters worth a copy-hold; 

A hose and doublet which a lordship cost; 

A gaudy cloak three manors’ price, almost; 

A beaver band and feather for the head, 

Prized at the church’s tithes—the poor man’s bread.” 


§ 16. King James and his courtiers had their clothing made 
large. For fear of assassination the monarch had his doublet, or 
short jacket, thoroughly quilted. The breeches were made in 
great plaits, and full stuffed. The legs were encased in tight- 
fitting silk hose. The shoes were ornamented with rosettes, and 
the head was covered with a high-peaked hat bearing a feather. 
Pearls and precious stones enriched the velvet and satin garments 
of the more wealthy subjects. 1 Foppery assumed the most vulgar 
forms. The “ fine gentleman ” was the personification of odious 
effeminacy. Somerset a and Buckingham b had set 
b ^ y 8 ' P 4 oq° the example of endeavoring to look as much like 
’ P ' ’ women as possible; and a beau was made up of rib¬ 
bons, jewelry, and perfume. He carried sugar-plums in his pocket, 
to accompany, as a gift, his sweet lisping, silly words, addressed 
to his mistress. He painted his face, and dotted it with black 
patches, after the fashion of his feminine complement, whose 
“ make-up ” was a profound study; and the process of dressing 
her was as complex and tedious as the fitting out of a ship of war. 
Her raiment was kept in coffers scented with musk or other rich 
odors. Her own hair was braided, curled, scented, and ornamented 
with artificial ringlets. Her face was painted and dotted with 
black patches cut in the form of crescents, stars, and other ob¬ 
jects. Unguents and lotions, with rouge, made fresh complexions, 
o § 20 p 385 ^ er costume retained the patterns of Elizabeth’s 
time® until late in the reign of James; and both 
men and women at court and among the aristocracy were generally 


1 James was always poverty-stricken in Scotland, and dressed plainly. When he 
entered upon the rich living of monarchs of England he blazed out into a gilded, 
vulgar coxcomb. He almost daily figured in a new dress. His favorites imitated his 
extravagance, and continued it into the reign of Charles. When Buckingham went 
to the French court to receive Charles's bride, he provided himself with a suit of 
white uncut velvet, and a cloak, both set all over with diamonds valued at £80.000 
($400,000), besides a feather made of great diamonds, and his sword, girdle, hat-band, 
and spurs, also thick set with diamonds. He had another suit of purple satin, em¬ 
broidered all over with pearls valued at £20,000 ($100,000). Besides these, he had 
twenty-five other rich suits. 


451 


Chapter III.] THE COMMONWEALTH. 

Cavaliers and Roundheads. Pastimes. Low Amusements. 

models of folly, extravagance, and vulgarity. There were many 
exceptions to the rule, however. 

§ 17. Early in Charles’s reign the court and society assumed a 
more sober hue; but when that society became divided into royal¬ 
ists and republicans, the latter became excessively plain, and so 
caused the former, in order to show their hostility, to run into 
extravagances and license as great as in James’s reign. The men 
of Charles’s party wore their hair in long ringlets falling upon 
their shoulders, and they were known by the name of “Cavaliers,” 
while the republicans had theirs cut short, which obtained for 
them the title of “ Roundheads.” The moustache and peaked 
beard were common to both. The feminine royalists wore ringlets 
and feathers, and the republican ladies wore close hoods, caps, or 
high-crowned hats. Women of fashion, of both parties, used 
muffs of fur, and carried elegant fans of large dimensions. 

§ 18. With the accession of James, the tournament—the ridicu¬ 
lous shadow of chivalry—ceased as a pastime; and with Charles 
the First, armor of every kind passed away. James made masques 
and emblematical pageants (composed principally by Ben Jonson) 
the chief amusements of his court, in which himself, the queen, 
and attendants of both sexes were actors. On these occasions 
liquors were so freely used that generally every one of both sexes 
was taken to bed by a servant as “ drunk as a lord.” The popu¬ 
lace, at the same time, were treated to similar amusements of a still 
more vulgar type, in which the actors indulged in obscenity. 
These so pleased the low taste of the king, that he often invited 
them to perform in the pajace for his amusement. 

§ 19. The gluttony of the monarch was imitated by his courtiers 
and the more obsequious nobility; and feasts were often ex¬ 
hibitions of the greatest extravagance in cost and prodigality in 
use. In these both sexes engaged, and low buffoonery was the 
staple delight of all. Foreigners who visited England were 
amazed at the gross and frivolous manners of the Stuart courts, 
and of both sexes in the so-called higher classes. The English 
taverns were then dens of filth, and filled with tobacco-smoke, 
indecent songs, and the noise of roysterers; and yet, according to 
the writers of the day, women of rank allowed themselves to be 
entertained in such places, and were flattered by the coarse fami¬ 
liarity offered by their rollicking admirers. The simplicity, court¬ 
liness, and refinement which more generally prevailed in Eliza- 


452 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book VIII. 

Effects of Extravagance and Gambling. The Middle and Poorer Classes. 

betli’s reign were exchanged for the most vulgar, sensuous excite¬ 
ments. The young of both sexes rushed to London to join in the 
common revelry; and vast sums were spent by rich men in fitting 
daughters to appear “ decently ” at court. Wastefulness led in 
the grand march of what is known as society, and want closely 
followed. Swiftly did ancient manors, and the fortunes accu¬ 
mulated for generations, vanish; and wealthy and time-honored 
families sunk into poverty and obscurity, and disappeared from 
the scroll of English heraldry. That “ four-squared sin,” as dice 
was generally called, played a conspicuous part in the work of 
ruin, for gambling was a prevailing vice, in which cheating was 
regarded as the equivalent of smartness. 

§ 20. While the court and aristocracy, possessing the means for 
every indulgence, presented so sad a picture of human nature 
during the rule of the earlier Stuarts, the great middle classes— 
merchants, shopkeepers, artisans, and yeomen—did not form a con¬ 
spicuous part of that picture. There was among them a sturdy 
morality and vital Christianity that shamed those who looked 
down upon them, and awed those who looked up to them. They 
were a salutary influence in the ranks of the upper and lower 
classes. Without the means for unlimited indulgence, they were 
saved from temptations. The country esquires exhibited great 
hospitality, but it was subordinate to proper economy and deco¬ 
rous manner. The women of such households attended faithfully 
to domestic duties, and enjoyed the indoor pastimes of rural 
life, in which their poorer neighbors often shared. These were 
masquerades, cards, dice, billiards, balls, and musical entertain¬ 
ments. The men engaged in hunting, hawking, wrestling, foot¬ 
ball, nine-pins, pitching the bar, quoits, bull and bear baiting, 
and other active amusements. 

§ 21. The poorer classes were comparatively comfortable, as the 
simple test of population proves. When Elizabeth died, the 
population of England was about 5,000,000 souls. At the close 
of the Commonwealth, or a little more than half a century, it 
was about 6,500,000. And yet the poorer class were coarsely and 
sometimes sparsely fed, for land and its productions were higher 
than they had ever been before, and wages were low. 1 The bread 

1 Rates of wages were fixed by law. In 1610, the justices of the peace in Rutland 
county established the followingA managing farmer, who would also kill a hog, 
sheep, or calf, 90 shillings a year. A common farm-servant, 40 shillings. A middling 


Chapter in.] THE COMMONWEALTH. 453 

Condition of the People. Wages. The Fine Arts. 

corn used by tlie farm-laborers was chiefly barley, and large quanti¬ 
ties of oatmeal were used. Onions, leeks, carrots, and radishes were 
used extensively in making pottage. Potatoes had just been intro¬ 
duced from America, and were scarce and dear, selling as high as 
two shillings a pound. The servants in rich families were furnished 
with rye-bread. Coffee was introduced during the Common¬ 
wealth ; tea was unknown ; and only a small quantity of sugar 
had been imported. Clothing was dear, for wool and flax, on 
account of a large foreign demand, brought high prices. Wages 
were so inadequate that from the ranks of the poorer classes, 
chiefly, England was filled with thieves and beggars. 

§ 22. The fine arts received special encouragement from diaries 
the First, who was a scholar and man of taste. So early as 1615 
the Earl of Arundel—the “ father of virtu in England”—began 
to collect a gallery of statues and pictures, and was the first to 
reveal to Great Britain the beauties of ancient art. Other collec¬ 
tions followed, among which that of the Duke of Buckingham 
was the most valuable and costly. It escaped destruction or dis¬ 
persion by the republicans only by being sent to France. In a 
short time the royal houses were filled with choice paintings, and 
those of the nobility were rich in works of genius. 

§ 23. When an inornate relation between England and Holland 
existed, painters of the Dutch and Flemish schools, then compet¬ 
ing with those of Italy, furnished many fine paintings for the royal 
gallery at Whitehall* where Yan Dyke became a favorite living 
artist, chiefly as a portrait painter. Charles invited other continental 
artists to his court, but few came. Rubens was there as special 
ambassador for the King of Spain, in 1630, and was persuaded 
to paint an apotheosis .of James the First, on the ceiling of the 
Whitehall banqueting-liouse, for £3,000. Through him Charles 
procured the celebrated cartoons of Raphael, from Flanders; 

servant, 29 shillings ; and a boy under sixteen years, 20 shillings. A chief woman 
servant, capable of doing all household work, and overseeing others, 26s. 8d. A second 
one, 23s. 4d. A drudge, 16s. A girl under sixteen, 14s. A chief miller, 46s. A chief 
shepherd, 80s. A mower, 5 d. a day, and his meat. A man reaper or hay-maker, Ad. 
A woman reaper, 3d. ; and a woman hay maker, 2d. If no meat was given, these sums 
were to be exactly doubled. In the winter, wages for farm work were still lower. 

A master carpenter received 8 d. a day, with meat, or Is. 2 d. without. For a manag. 
ing mason, having charge over others, 8d., with meat, or Is. without. A master joiner 
or sawyer, 6d., with meat. A horse collar-maker, the same; and other mechanics an 
average of 5d. a day, with meat, or 9d. without. In forming these rates of wages 
the justices calculated that half the day's wages was equivalent to diet for one day. 


454 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 


[Book VIII. 

The Cartoons of Raphael. Architecture. Music. 

and he purchased the Duke of Milan’s collection for £18,000, or 
$90,000. 

§ 24. A taste for the fine arts was thus planted in England, and 
took permanent root; but the republicans made war upon it as a 
royal extravagance. So early as 1645, when they had possession 
of Whitehall, a they began to sell the pictures in its 
a § 15, p- 434. g a ji er y. an q the parliament ordered all paintings in 
which the figure of the Virgin appeared to be burned. Had 
this order been executed, some of the finest treasures of art would 
have perished. But the taste and good sense of the republi¬ 
can leaders prevented the outrage. Cromwell purchased the car¬ 
toons of Raphael for the nation. Lambert b was an 
b § 2 , p. 428. artist of some distinction, and Fairfax was an admirer 
of art and an enthusiastic antiquary. But while valuable works of 
art, and some good artists, came to England from the Continent in 
the earlier half of the seventeenth century, and Charles planned 
an academy of art on a grand scale, no conspicuous native artist 
appeared, either in painting or sculpture. 

§ 25. The classic style of architecture introduced by Inigo Jones, 
a native of London, in James's time, produced a radical change in 
the art, not only in England but elsewhere. It outshone all that had 
been done on the Continent. He stripped it of the Italian corrup¬ 
tions. His first great work in his native country was the palace 
of Whitehall, built for James the First. It gave tone to all that 
followed it. It formed the point of division between ancient and 
modern architecture in Great Britain. Engraving also received 
much encouragement before the Commonwealth; but no native 
artist of much eminence appeared, if we except Thomas Simon, 
the exquisite seal-engraver, by whose work the finest coinage ever 
done in England was that of the Commonwealth. 

§ 26. Music had assumed the character of a science in Eliza¬ 
beth’s reign, when Dr. Tye, of Oxford, produced some remarkable 
anthems for cathedral service. Compositions of that kind and 
madrigals occupied the attention of the best minds; and music was 
brought to great perfection before the accession of James. The 
madrigal, in verse and melody, was very popular, for it was a har¬ 
monious expression of love and admiration. The “ music for the 

million”_simple kind for simple folk—was inferior in melody 

to that of Ireland, but equal to any on the Continent. During the 
Commonwealth, music, like the other fine arts, felt the deadweight 


THE COMMONWEALTH. 


455 


Chapter III.] 

Literature. 


The Translation of the Bible. 


of that fanatical austerity which was a logical reaction after the 
licentiousness of the times of the Stuart dynasty. 

§ 27. The literature of this period is most conspicuous in dra¬ 
matic and poetic forms. The age of Elizabeth had given Spenser 
and Shakespeare to the world ; but some of the best productions 
of the latter appeared early in the reign of her successor. In so 
wonderful a manner did he put into shape and harmony, by mar¬ 
vellous use of ideas and language, the crude productions of his 
predecessors, that hie genius made those predecessors obsolete, for 
it wrought a revolution in the national drama. He substituted 
refined wit and humor for boisterous vulgarity ; and by the most 
perfect limning of every feature of human nature, he placed the 
signet of immortality upon his productions. Those who hold 
nearest rank to Shakespeare, as dramatic writers of his time, are 
Beaumont and Fletcher, who wrote in partnership. Ben Jonson 
and Philip Massinger were in the charmed circle. 

§ 28. There were many poets of excellence, and essayists and 
historians not a few, in this period, whose names will never be 
forgotten. Among the poets, Sir John Davis, Drummond, Donne, 
Herrick, Cowley, and, late in the time, the great Milton, appear 
the most eminent. Chillingwortli, Fuller, and Jeremy Taylor 
were the greater lights among theological writers ; and the essay¬ 
ists were led by Francis Bacon, who wrongfully bears the honors 
due to Galileo as the father of modem philosophy. He was 
closely followed by Sir Thomas Browne and Robert Burton. Sir 
Walter Raleigh and Richard Knolles were the greater historians 
of the age ; and Butler was the eminent satirist. 

§ 29. We must remember as one of the greater glories of the 
period, that our English version of the Bible was, by the authority 
of James the First, translated from the original Greek and 
Hebrew. That translation, however, was made upon the basis of 
that of the “ Bishops’ Bible,” prepared nearly forty years earlier. 
And that translation was partly the work of Cranmer, in the reign 
of the boy-king, Edward the Sixth. 


BOOK IX. 

THE RESTORED STUARTS. 
[FROM A.D. 1660 TO 1714.] 


CHAPTER I. 

REIGN OF CnARLES THE SECOND. [A. D. 1660 TO 1685.] 

§ 1. There was, doubtless, much sincerity in the joy manifested 
on the arrival of King Charles the Second, though it sometimes 
took an extravagant form, such as when a “Master Dobson, a 
great sufferer for royalty, burnt his windmill as a bonfire.” Much 
of it was doubtless feigned, especially by the Presbyterians, who 
now coalesced with the royalists for the purpose of turning away 
kingly wrath from themselves (who had been the original offend¬ 
ers) to fall upon their later adversaries, the Independents and 
Anabaptists.* 1 Nor were the royalists all jubilant, 
a § 7, p. 332. The better mcn amon g them had gloomy forebodings 

concerning the future of England, for the king, then thirty years 
of age, was a shameless, heartless, and open profligate, and known 
to be utterly untruthful. And when, two years after his acces¬ 
sion, he married the young Catherine of Braganza, a princess of 
Portugal, and from the day of her arrival at the palace openly 
dishonored her by his brutal vileness, it was plainly to be seen 
that public virtue was in imminent danger from the corruptions 
of the court, and the State threatened with ruin. 

§ 2. The king, as we have seen, b had promised a general pardon, 
subject to such exceptions as the parliament might 
b ^ 14, p ' 443 ‘ make. That body, in the excess of their loyalty, 
were disposed to be less merciful than the monarch, and a large 
number of the best men in the kingdom were excepted in the Act 
of Oblivion, which was speedily passed. These were ordered to 
surrender themselves in humble submission at the feet of his 
majesty. Some did so, and their lives were spared; but they were 
stripped of all political rights and possessions, and their families 



Chapter I.] 


THE RESTORED STUARTS. 


457 


Republicans punished. The Dead dishonored. A corrupt Alarmist. 

were beggared. Others escaped; but ten who attempted to do so, 
and were caught, were quickly tried and executed, while assassins 
were employed to destroy others. Among the sufferers was Sir 
Henry Yane; a and even John Milton was impri- a g 47 p 421 
soned and threatened with destruction because he had 
written his “Defence of the English People.” Only his friend, 
Andrew Marvell, and two other admirers of his genius, then in 
parliament, raised their voices in his favor. They were told that 
he had been Cromwell’s Secretary, and deserved to be hanged. 
He was finally released after t>eing plundered by the sergeant-at- 
arms, who called his robberies “fees.” Milton was disqualified 
for public service, and his “Defence of the People of England” 
was publicly burnt. That House of Commons, swayed by a 
Presbyterian majority, went further, and disgraced b ^ p m 
themselves and the nation by ordering the corpses c § 2 ’ p 428 
of Cromwell, Bradshaw, b and Ireton, 0 with whom 
these Presbyterians had originally acted, to be dragged from 
their graves in Westminster Abbey, exposed on gibbets, and then 
beheaded. 

§ 3. In order to gloss this infamy and make republicanism 
more odious, that base courtier, Lord Clarendon, the eminent 
chancellor, pretended to have discovered a “ horrible plot ” for 
the overthrow of the monarchy., He took the occasion of a little 
riot in London, led by a half-insane enthusiast named Yenner, a 
wine-cooper and Independent preacher, who declared that there 
should be no ruler but “ King Jesus,” to alarm the country. Ru¬ 
mors were put afloat that thousands more of the Independents and 
Anabaptists were storing arms in every part of the country, and 
the government made a great display of precautionary measures 
against insurrection. There really was some reason for suspecting 
outbreaks, for there was general discontent because of increased 
taxation and the violation of royal promises. The parliamentary 
army had been disbanded, and Monk, d now rewarded d ^ p 442 
for his treachery to the people by the office of “ Lord 
General,” or commander-in-chief, and a coronet as Duke of Albe¬ 
marle, had retained only such regiments as would do his bidding. 
The soldiers who were dismissed were naturally discontented, and 
there were injudicious threats of expelling the king before Christ¬ 
mas. 

§ 4. Meanwhile, royalty had been restored in Scotland and Ire- 
20 


458 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 


i § 25, p. 411. 


[Book IX. 

Affairs in Scotland and Ireland. Perfidy of King and Parliament. 

land. The compliant Scottish assembly, in which the Presbyte¬ 
rians ruled, repudiated the covenant* and repealed 
all the acts that seemed to trench on the royal 
authority. Republicans were laid under a ban, but only two— 
the Marquis of Argyle and a preacher named Guthrie—suffered 
death. Argyle, it was charged, had suggested to Cromwell the 
necessity of beheading the late king. The Irish parliament occu¬ 
pied themselves mainly in securing the lands that had been wrested 
from the natives during the Commonwealth, and were less obse¬ 
quious than either the English or Switch. 

§ 5. Before Charles’s first parliament adjourned, they began the 
business of re-establishing the Church and State upon its old founda¬ 
tions of unity, and arbitrary power. In his letter from 
Breda, b the king had declared full “liberty to tender 
consciences,” and that no man should be disquieted or called in 
question for differences of opinion in matters of religion which 
do not disturb the peace of the kingdom. Both king and parlia¬ 
ment seemed anxious to ignore this promise, and when a new 
parliament met, early in May, 1661, the members, composed chiefly 
of thorough royalists and churchmen, proceeded with a high hand 
to strengthen the monarchy. They passed acts condemning the 
covenant c and disposing of the statutes under which 


b § 14, p. 443. 


® § 25, p. 411. 
i § 27, p. 411. 


the Long Parliament d had made war upon the king. 
They ordered the liturgy to be used in all places of 
public worship, and new collects were added to the Book of Com¬ 
mon Prayer, in one of which the profane and profligate Charles 
was styled “ our most religious king.” They restored the bishops 
to seats in the House of Lords, and materially abridged one of the 
most sacred privileges of the people, the right of petition. A 
most intolerant conformity bill, known as the Act of Uniformity, 
drawn up at the instance of Clarendon, 6 was passed, 
requiring every minister of the gospel to publicly 
declare his assent to everything contained and prescribed in the 
Prayer-book, and that every preacher who had not received ordi¬ 
nation from the hands of a bishop must submit to that rite before 
the next feast of St. Bartholomew, the 24th *of August. By this 
act “ two thousand godly ministers,” as a chronicler asserts, “ were 
driven out of the church on Black Bartholomew’s day,” because 
they would not make their consciences subservient to their tem¬ 
poral interests, as many did. An attempt at reconciliation had 


* § 3, p. 457. 


CnAPTER I.] THE RESTORED STUARTS. 459 

Dangerous Coalitions. Royalist Sufferers discontented. 

been made by a conference of nonconformist ministers and bish¬ 
ops of the established church, but it failed because neither party 
would yield. 

§ 6. Up to this time the Presbyterians had regarded the other 
nonconformists with dislike quite equal to what each felt for the 
Episcopal Church. Now this persecution reconciled them to the 
others, who had only carried out the republican principles which 
the Presbyterians had inculcated. But the latter, rich London 
merchants and such, kept safe in the background, and supplied 
ample funds, whilst the bolder Independents and Anabaptists 
were willing to take the risk of open conflict, should it arise. 
The parliament tried to meet the danger by passing acts which 
prohibited meetings under pretence of religious worship, and for¬ 
bade nonconformists to be members of corporations, or expelled 
ministers to reside in such towns unless they would take an oath 
as to their peaceable intentions. This very few of them would 
do, and the whole body thus very naturally fell under the sus¬ 
picion of only “ biding their time ” to renew the calamities of the 
preceding reign. 

§ 7. But the nonconformists were now not the only discontented 
parties. After so many years of confusion, it was, no doubt, quite 
impossible to satisfy the claims of all who had suffered in the 
royal cause, and yet not do injustice to the present holders of 
offices and lands, as they probably were not the original despoilers. 
But the difficulty was made the greater by the avarice o ^ 
of Monk,* who sold to the highest bidder offices that P ’ 
the king meant to bestow on men who had lost all but life for 
their loyalty. Their letters and petitions, preserved in the Public 
Record Office, beside telling tales of almost unexampled suffering 
and poverty, show how bitterly they felt this. One document, 
called “ the Complaint of the Royal and Loyal Party to the King,” 
speaks out boldly; but it may well be doubted if Charles ever 
saw it. It says that those who have ruined their fortunes in his 
cause cannot even get their petitions read by the secretaries at the 
council table without a bribe, and that they daily see the greatest 
opposers of the king put in offices of trust for money. The com¬ 
plainants have no large sums to offer, and though they have lost 
blood and estate in the cause, they must return to their poor homes 
a joy and a scorn to their adversaries. 

§ 8. Of no class was this more true than of the Irish, who, without 


460 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book IX. 

Bribery and Favoritism. The King’s Marriage. Vices and Extravagance. 

having been concerned in the insurrection of 1641, a had, in later 
years, embraced-the royal cause under the Marquis of 
» § 34, P . 415. Q rmon d b The Protestants, as has been said, had 
b § 4, p- 429. been the very first to 0 ff er their services to the king 
when his restoration seemed likely, and when this was effected 
they had such an ascendency in the Irish parliament that the 
king’s declaration of his intention to do justice between all parties 
became a dead letter, much to his own discredit. He took a bribe 
of £100,000, and secured hundreds of thousands of acres of for¬ 
feited lands, which he bestowed on his brother James, the Duke 
of York, the Dukes of Albemarle 0 and Ormond, d 


- § 3, p. 457. 
d § 4, p. 429. 


= § 1, p. 456. 


‘ § 8, p. 438. 


and on favorites who had no connection whatever 
with Ireland. This done, he left the whole of the 
land that was worth'having to the Cromwellians on the payment 
of a small fine, which it was pretended was to furnish a money 
compensation to those of the loyal Irish who did not receive a few 
barren acres here and there, but which was, instead, wasted on his 
profligate pleasures. 

§ 9. In the third year of his reign the king married Catherine of 
Braganza, a Portuguese princess already mentioned, 6 
who brought him for her dower, beside a large sum 
of money, the island of Bombay in the East Indies, and the town 
of Tangier on the African coast. At about the same time Dun¬ 
kirk f was sold to the King of France, and the pro¬ 
ceeds added to the king’s private treasure. This act 
disgusted the entire nation. No sums, however, could be enough 
for a king so extravagant that he bestowed nearly £140,000 
($700,000) upon one of his favorites in the course of a single year. 
To procure means for selfish indulgence he sacrificed alike his 
own character and the honor of the nation; and he thus at last 
alienated the affections of even the most loyal, though they felt 
bound to maintain his throne from a sentiment of duty as well as 
of interest. 

§ 10. Not only to save expense, but because it could not be 
thoroughly relied upon, the regular army had been disbanded as 
soon as possible, and some few new troops were raised, of which 
the Royal Guard was the chief. It was mainly composed of old 
royalist officers, whose ruined fortunes made them gladly take 
service in it as “ private gentlemen,” and it was more a band of 
attached personal followers of the monarch than an ordinary body 


461 


Chapter I.] THE RESTORED STUARTS. 

Royal Guards. Warfare with the Dutch. 

of troops. The Guards were thus quite prepared to undertake any 
service that might be required, and- they dispersed the religious 
meetings of the nonconformists known as “ Conventicles,” hunted 
after fugitive “regicides” and traitors, and brought a g 18 p 422 
in their captives with a zeal inspired by recollections ^ ^ ^ 
of Naseby a and Worcester, 11 which induced many who 
feared the like fate to seek refuge abroad, but particularly in 
Holland. 

§11. The royalists in general regarded the Dutch with dislike, 
not only from old grievances, when they had been obliged to seek 
shelter among them, and had been denied it, but because that 
shelter was now freely given to the republicans and nonconform¬ 
ists. That dislike was manifested by the Duke of York, who, as 
high admiral and governor of the African Company on the coast 
of Guinea, ordered the seizure of the Dutch possessions there. 
The Dutch retaliated in kind, and these troubles led to a war in 
the year 1G65, which was all the more fiercely waged because it 
was known that the nonconformists naturally prayed for the suc¬ 
cess of the enemy, and were ready to join them if opportunity 
offered. The Dutch fleet, however, was signally defeated in Sole- 
bay [June 3, 1665] by the Duke of York and Prince # § ^ p 4lg 
Rupert, c and thus a meditated invasion of England 
came to nothing. On suspicion of being concerned in the pro¬ 
ject of a Dutch invasion, eight of the old republican party were 
executed. In the next year the Dutch were again d § 3 p 457 
defeated by Prince Rupert and Albemarle, 4 and 
though the French had by this time joined with them, they were 
soon obliged to sue for peace. 

§ 12. In the year before the war [a.d. 1664] the Dutch had suf¬ 
fered aggression at the hands of the same Duke of York. Charles 
had, without any fair pretence to right, given to his brother the 
territory in America known as New Netherlands, when the Duke 
sent a squadron to seize his new possessions. This was done early 
in September, when the name of the province w T as changed from 
New Netherlands to New York. 

§ 13. Whilst the negotiations with the Dutch were going on, it 
was considered so certain that peace would follow, that no naval 
preparations were made for the ensuing summer, but everything 
was wasted on the court. De Witt, who was at the head of affairs 
in Holland, marked this, and was encouraged by the refugees to 


462 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book IX. 

Invasion by the Dutch. The Plague in London. Fail of Clarendon. 

strike an unexpected blow. Accordingly, a strong Dutch fleet sud¬ 
denly appeared at the mouth of the Thames in June, 1667, bat¬ 
tered down an unfinished fort at Sheemess, which was meant to re¬ 
place the strong castle of Queensborough, destroyed by Cromwell, 
and, in full hope of being joined by the adherents of the “ old 
cause,” who were still numerous in the navy-yards, sailed up to 
Chatham, where several large ships lay, protected, as it was 
thought, by a heavy chain. But treachery had been at work. 
Some of the dockyard people had cut the chain, and fastened 
it again with cords/ The Dutch, therefore, easily broke through it, 
burnt all the vessels but the “ Royal Charles,” and sent that as a 
trophy to Holland. Albemarle, 9 on the first alarm, 
a § 3 , P . 457. hastened t0 the S p 0 t 5 and by great exertion prevented 
a landing being made. The Dutch lingered in the Thames a few 
days longer, causing such alarm that ships were sunk as high as 
Black wall to bar their passage; but they were beaten near Graves¬ 
end by Sir Edward Sprague, and retired after threatening Har¬ 
wich. A peace, which turned out to be little more than a pre¬ 
tence, followed. 

§ 14 Whilst this, the first Dutch war, endured, London was 
most terribly afflicted by the plague, 10,000 people dying in one 
week [September, 1665], and in a year after the whole city was 
destroyed by what has ever since been known as the Fire of Lon¬ 
don. During t\e same time, too, an insurrection, forced on by 
the detestable tools of Charles in Church and State, broke out in 
the west of Scotland, the stronghold of the covenan- 
b § 25, p. 411. terg b ft was soon suppressed. 

§ 15. The close of the Dutch war was speedily followed by the 
fall of the Earl of Clarendon, 0 once (as Air. Hyde) a 
c§ 3, p- 457. member of the Long Parliament, but who joined 
d § 41, p 418. carles I. at Oxford d and had accompanied his son 
in all his perilous wanderings. He returned with him at the 
restoration, and for more than seven years, though holding only 
the legal office of chancellor, was what would now be called the 
premier. He was avaricious and corrupt to the last degree, and 
accumulated a vast fortune. The Duke of York had married his 
daughter under circumstances discreditable to all parties, and he 
seemed likely, after his adventurous life, to end his days in honor 
and affluence. But he gave offence to some of the unworthy 
favorites about the court, and they threatened to impeach him. 


Chapter L] THE RESTORED STUARTS. 463 

The Cabal. Doings of the French King. Earl of Shaftesbury. 

charging him with corruption in his office, recommending the 
dissolution of the parliament, and endeavoring to bring in arbitrary 
power. Charles, though he professed to maintain his old regard 
for him, had no wish to have a quarrel with his parliament, and 
therefore all but commanded him to withdraw. He did so, and 
died in exile; but his two sons became persons of importance in 
after years, and his two granddaughters sat on the throne. 

§ 16. The king'now chose a council, something like the modem 
cabinet, which wfts called his Cabal, a word formed by a com¬ 
bination of the initials of the names of the five men who com¬ 
posed it. These were Sir William Clifford, Lord Arlington, Duke 
of Buckingham, Lord Ashley, and Lord Lauderdale. The latter, 
once a covenanter himself, ruled Scotland in a most tyrannical 
manner. These persons were regarded as five of the most unprinci¬ 
pled men in the country. 

§ 17. At this time Louis the Fourteenth of France was as great 
an object of alarm to the Protestant States as Philip of Spain had 
been in the days of Elizabeth, a and, at the desire of & ^ p 36g 
his parliament, Charles joined the Dutch and the 
Swedes in an alliance against him in 1668. But this he did only to 
get money from them as if for war (for he was quite as much a 
Roman Catholic as a Protestant), as he had already a secret undei- 
standing with Louis, by which each was pledged to assist the 
other’s projects. Louis wished to conquer Holland and enlarge 
his dominions at the expense of Spain ; and Charles desired to be 
free from all control by his parliament, and, beside, to gain more 
than they ^ould willingly allow for his idle pleasures. His Cabal 
readily seconded him; and the alliance against France was allowed 
to become a dead letter. But the pretence was still kept up, and the 
parliament, deceived by the false king, readily granted a subsidy 
for a war against the great enemy of Protestantism. This Charles 
shamelessly expended for his own purposes; and then, to carry 
out his agreement with Louis, he prepared for war with the Dutch, 
by seizing on a very large sum of money belonging to the bank¬ 
ers, as his father had done, b which again, as form- b § ^ p m 
erly, had been lodged in the Tower as a place of 
security. This was done on the advice of Ashley, who was, as 
a reward, created Earl of Shaftesbury. Some infringements of the 
late peace, and, still more, the shelter given to the refugees, afforded 
a ready pretext for the war, in which the Dutch suffered severely. 


464 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book IX. 

War with the Dutch. Opposition to Romanists. Shaftesbury’s Movements. 

having to contend with the French on land and the Duke of York 
and Prince Rupert at sea at the same time. After a two years’ 
war, in which their navy was greatly injured, they sued for 
peace, which they only obtained on hard terms in 1G74. 

§ 18. Whilst the war was raging, the king gave great alarm to 
his parliament by dispensing with the laws against the noncon- 
foiuysts. His brother, the Duke of York, had some time before 
avowed himself a Romanist, and the king was believed to be one 
also; hence his “ indulgence,” as it was called, was looked on 
with great suspicion, as if designed for the advancement of Ro¬ 
manism. From this time what was called the Country Party arose, 
consisting at first mainly of royalists, whose devotion to the 
church converted them into opponents of the king’s measures 
whilst retaining their love for his person; but they were joined 
afterwards by men of very different principles. 1 Shaftesbury, who 
was the very soul of intrigue and mischief, and had adhered to 
every party in succession for the last thirty years, until they ap¬ 
peared on the point of falling, now thought it time to join the 
popular side, and mainly by his means what was known as the Test 
Act was passed [a.d. 1678], which rendered Romanists incapable of 
holding office, and obliged the Duke of York to resign his post of 
Lord High Admiral. a This was greatly resented by the 

‘ § n ’ p ‘ 461 ' duke, and Shaftesbury, in return, commenced an agita¬ 
tion to exclude him from the throne on account of his religion. 
The attempt failed, though Shaftesbury and his associates resorted 
to the most unscrupulous means to effect their object. 

§ 19. The Cabal was driven from office by the parliament shortly 
before the close of the Dutch war; but Shaftesbury had already 
separated from them, and become a vehement patriot. He was now 
the leader of the opposition, never scrupling to attack either his 
old colleagues or his successor Danby, against whom he brought 
charges of corruption, but was unable to procure his impeachment. 
The king tried to stop this by interposing long intervals between 

i When this occurred the court party styled them Whigs, and they retorted by call¬ 
ing their opponents Tories. These were opprobrious names for disorderly bands in 
Scotland ahd Ireland, but they were accepted by each party, and soon replaced the 
terms Cavalier and Roundhead * of the preceding reign. These 
a \ 17 , p. 461 . name&) w ith similar significance, yet distinguish the court party 
in England and their opponents. They were in use during the war for the indepen¬ 
dence of the Anglo-American colonies [1775 to 1783] to distinguish the loyalists from 
the republicans. 


Chapter I.] THE RESTORED STUARTS. 465 

Titus Oates and his Colleagues. Excitement against the Romanists. 

the successive meetings of parliament; but here again Shaftesbury 
came forward and declared that a prorogation of fifteen months, 
which occurred, was in reality a dissolution. The House of Peers 
sent him to the Tower, and there he remained for a twelvemonth, 
when he was released on making submission on his knees. That 
was in February, 1678. He at once began to intrigue for office; 
and very soon afterward a matter occurred so exactly suite*! to his 
purpose that he was suspected of contriving it. 

§ 20. In August, 1678, a man named Titus Oates appeared before 
the council, at the instance of Dr. Tonge, a leading divine, and 
informed them that the Jesuits had devised a plot to murder the 
king and all the chief Protestants, and conquer the country by 
means of help from France—Coleman, the Duke of York’s secre¬ 
tary, if not the duke himself, being concerned in it. The council 
refused to listen to the tale, but Shaftesbury eagerly adopted it. 
Oates swore to his story before a magistrate, with some startling 
additions, and when, a few days afterwards, that magistrate (Sir 
Edmund Berry Godfrey) was found dead in the fields, this was 
taken as a certain token of its truth, and that the Protestant mas- 
s-icre had already begun. The parliament at once assembled, and 
under this excitement passed an act which excluded Roman Catho¬ 
lics from a seat in their assembly. Then five Romish peers were 
sent to the Tower, and Coleman, the duke’s secretary, and three 
priests, were executed. So fierce did the frenzy of alarm become, 
that any one who appeared to cast a doubt on the reality of the 
plot ran imminent risk of being hanged as concerned in it. 

§ 21. The rewards that were showered on Oates brought forward 
a band of systematic perjurers, who went even beyond his story, 
by accusing the queen of a design to poison the king, and on 
their testimony three of her servants were executed as the murder¬ 
ers of the magistrate, though there was every reason to suppose 
that he had committed suicide. 

§ 22. Shaftesbury was now forced on the king by the parlia¬ 
ment and became president of the council. Under Iris auspices 
Oates or Tonge, Dangerfield, Dugdale, or Bedloe—all, even before 
this, men of infamous character—swore away the lives of thirteen 
more priests, and w T ere handsomely paid for their services. Oates 
and Tonge, who were clergymen of the established church, were 
lodged in the palace at Whitehall, and attended by a guard; but 
whilst Oates received £12 a week, Tonge, his subordinate, only 
20 * 


466 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book IX 

Bad Men rewarded. Anti-Popish Tumult. A Strange Parliament. 

had an occasional £50, as “ of the king’s bounty,” the last sum of 
the kind being paid early in the year 1680 for his burial. Bedloe, 
as the great accuser of the queen, was valued almost as highly as 
Oates, and long continued in the receipt of £10 a week; but the 
minor villains, Dangerfield and Dugdale, had only £2 or £3 
weekly, which, however, they added to by sending in heavy bills, 
every now and then, for their “ expenses about the plot,’ or for 
such “ further discoveries ” as their patrons called for. 

§ 23. At last, after two years’ endurance, the frenzy began to 
abate ; and Sir George Wakeman, the queen’s physician, and three 
monks, though accused by the whole tribe of perjurers, were ac¬ 
quitted. Shaftesbury was soon afterward dismissed by the king, 
when he revenged himself by procuring a great anti-popery tumult 
in London. As that did not effect his restoration, he next at¬ 
tempted to indict the Duke of York as a Romish recusant, which 
would have entailed the forfeiture of his estate. In this, too, he 
failed; but there was still belief enough in the plot to procure 
the condemnation and execution of Lord Stafford, an aged Ro¬ 
manist, in 1680. The king avowed his belief in his innocence, 
but could not venture to spare his life. Indeed, so vehement was 
the feeling, that when Charles, as was customary in the case of 
noblemen, mitigated the horrible sentence for treason to behead¬ 
ing, Lord William Russell, and Cornish, the city sheriff, had the 
barbarity to question his right to do so. 

§ 24. A new parliament met early in the following year [a.d. 
1681] and from a well-founded idea of some violent measure by 
Shaftesbury and his associates, it was ordered to assemble, not as 
usual at Westminster, where they would have the turbulent Lon¬ 
doners at their call, but at Oxford, where loyalty was in the as¬ 
cendant. They came with large bodies of armed followers, and 
one vehement orator, Stephen College, who was known as the 
“Protestant joiner” and the inventor of a “pocket flail for good 
Protestants to defend themselves with against the Jesuits,” made 
himself conspicuous. Ribald rhymes, of which he was believed 
to be the author, were sung in the hearing of the king, which so 
enraged the royal guard a that during the time the 
a ^ 10, p ' 460 ' parliament lasted it was with difficulty they could be 
withheld from cutting him down; and he was said to have re¬ 
commended an attack on the Guards, which he did not venture to 
carry out. 


Chapter I.] THE RESTORED STUARTS. 467 

Shaftesbury’s Schemes defeated. Rebellion in Scotland. Revolutionary Party. 

§ 25. The parliament was entirely under Shaftesbury’s control, 
and fully bent on carrying a bill to exclude the Duke of York 
from the throne. The king, seeing their power, offered to make 
any concession they might ask instead of this; but his brother, 
who had shared his exile, he would not forsake. Finding them 
resolved on their own course, he dismissed them in a week, and, 
returning to London, published an address to his people, showing 
them the real designs of these men, which, if carried out, could 
only lead to a more desperate war than that which the Long Par¬ 
liament had waged. The result answered his expectations. No 
reasonable man wished to'see the government pass into the hands of 
Shaftesbury and his associates, and these self-elected leaders of 
the nation found themselves at once abandoned. Legal proceed¬ 
ings were taken. The Protestant joiner was executed as a traitor; 
and Shaftesbury, after offering the most humiliating submissions, 
only escaped the same fate by fleeing to Holland, where he died, 
1688, despised as a baffled incendiary. 

§ 26. Shortly before this a rebellion had been attempted in 
Scotland, the chief event that marked it Being the assassination of 
Archbishop Sharp, who, assisted by the infamous a § 16 p 463 
Lauderdal# had terribly persecuted the noncon¬ 
formists. After this the Duke of York was sent to govern the 
country, where he remained a considerable time, and re-established 
the royal authority, in spite of the opposition of the Earl of Ar- 
gyle (the son of the marquis executed twenty years before), b who 
was tried and convicted, but escaped to Holland in 

b § 4, p. 457. 

1681. 

§ 27. The so-called popular party had always been strong in the 
city of London, and they were now made to feel that they had the 
worst of the conflict. The city charters were declared forfeited 
on the ground of imposing an illegal toll, and when they were 
regranted it was with such alterations as made the magistracy 
dependent on the king, instead of being, as had long been the 
case, usually the bitter opponent of the government. The same 
course was taken with several other corporations, for similar rea¬ 
sons. 

§ 28. The revolutionary party now resolved on a desperate stroke 
for power. The king had a natural son, whom he had created 
Duke of Monmouth, and the idea of a general insurrection was 
entertained to compel him to declare this young man his successor 


468 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book IX. 

A Revolution attempted. The Leaders executed. Death of King Charles. 

instead of the Duke of York. In this scheme the Lord William 

Russell already mentioned, 3 the Earl of Essex, Alger- 
a § 23, p.466. „ n \ .in J 

non Sydney, who was an exiled republican, and a 

temporary pensioner of France, and John Hampden, the grandson 

of the Hampden of the Long Parliament, b fully con- 

§ 21, p. 40J. curre( j p> u t others of their party, as Rumbold, 
Ayliffe, Armstrong, and Ferguson, planned another way of 
securing the succession by assassinating the ting and the duke 
on their journey between Newmarket and London. The scheme 
(which is known as the Rye-house Plot, from Rumbold’s house, 
the intended scene of murder) miscarried, and Russell, Sidney, and 
several others suffered as traitors. Monmouth was pardoned, but 
for very shame soon fled to Holland. 

§ 29. The triumph of the king was now [a.d. 1664] complete, 
but he did not live long after. The Romish lords, who had been 
long imprisoned, were set free. Titus Oates was convicted of libel¬ 
ling the Duke of York, and sentenced to such damages as must 
render him a prisoner for life; and a similar fate befell Samuel 
Johnson, who had published a book called “ Julian the Apostate,” 
also meant to reflect on the duke. The king, now feeling that he, 
and not his parliament, was the mast<m dispensed 
c § 18, p. 464. ^ rp egt Act, 0 and restored the duke to all his 

offices. Many of the rich London citizens were heavily fined, 
and poorer men set in the pillory, for seditious 
** $ 28, p ‘ 4(>7 ' speeches; and the Rye-house plotters d were sought 
for even in the West Indies, brought home, and executed. 

§ 30. Charles did not enjoy the pleasures of absolute rule. He 
died somewhat suddenly at the palace of St. James, on the 6th of 
February, 1685, having been formally reconciled to the Church of 
Rome by the priest John Huddlestone, who had pre- 
e § 10 , p. 4 . gerye( j ^ a f ter thg battle of Worcester, so many 
years before. e 

§ 31. The character of Charles furnishes ample scope for both 
blame and pity. It is evident that he was originally of a kind 
and docile nature; but the inheritance of a taste for vicious com¬ 
pany and self-indulgence, combined with the temptations incident 
to his wanderings in early life, made him a profligate of the worst 
type, to the gratification of whose desires everything else was made 
to give way. Occasionally he would rouse himself, and show 
.courage, energy, and generosity, which made his ordinary sloth 


Chapter II.] THE RESTORED STUARTS. 469 

Character of Charles the Second. Accession of James the Second. 

and neglect of the duties of liis position all the more lamentable. 
He had, too, such grace of manner, and such readiness in acknow¬ 
ledging the services of his old adherents, that they considered him 
less to blame than his ministers for the neglect that they experi¬ 
enced. This was undoubtedly true. Their distress was often 
relieved when the old cavalier or his widow or orphans could get 
their petitions into the king’s own hand without the intervention 
of ministers or secretaries. His Secret Service accounts remain, 
and the sums therein entered as ‘‘the king’s free gift and royal 
bounty” to loyal sufferers are very considerable. The deepest 
stain on his character is his cowardice and insincerity in the mat¬ 
ter of his fellow-Romanists. Though he stated his belief in their 
innocence, he sacrificed their lives to his own safety; and he 
never hesitated to declare himself a member of the Church of 
England whilst he had any purpose to serve by the deceit. It 
was only in the last moments of his life that he was prevailed on 
to drop the mask and avow that he was a Roman Catholic. 


• CHAPTER H. 

reign of James the Second. [a.d. 1685 to 1689.] 

§ 1. So soon as Charles the Second was dead, his brother and 
successor, James Duke of York, hastened to the council and 
declared that he would ever maintain the established government 
both in Church and State. On the same afternoon [Feb. 6, 1685] 
he was publicly proclaimed king, and as it was known that he 
was somewhat less vicious than his brother, or at least more quiet 
and secret in his profligacy, the people answered with acclama¬ 
tions, and not a shadow of opposition appeared. “ In the even¬ 
ing,” says a cotemporary, “ there was great kissing of hands at 
Whitehall,” in which the queen (Anne Hyde, daughter of the 
Earl of Clarendon) 11 had a fair share. With many a g 3 p ^ 
gracious words James bade the ministers and great 
officers of his brother to retain their places. 

§ 2. James had less winning manners than his brother, but he 
had the character of a man whose word was sacred; and every 
one, including even the old exclusionists, seemed willing to put 



470 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 


[Book IX. 

James's fair Beginning. King of France and Prince of Orange. 

the most favorable construction on his conduct. lie tried the 
fidelity of churchmen by going in state to mass, and by releasing 
a large number of Roman Catholics and Quakers, v/ho were both 
imprisoned for refusing, though from very different motives, to 
take the oaths imposed by parliament. 1 But he made amends for 
this by being crowned, with his queen, according to the Protestant 
ceremonial, by Sancroft, Archbishop of Canterbury. Both the 
English and the Scottish parliaments met soon after his accession, 
and they seemed to vie with each other as to which should show the 
most confidence in him. But this fair prospect was soon overcast. 

§ 3. Louis the Fourteenth of France was now at the height of his 
power, and the other States saw little hope of checking him unless 
the new king of England could be induced to join with them. 
This he was not likely to do, for he had already become a pen¬ 
sioner of France, as his brother had been. The real leader of the 
league of Protestant States against Louis was William, Prince of 
Orange, James’s nephew, and also his son-in-law. lie had mar¬ 
ried James’s daughter, Mary, in 1677; and as his wife was the pre¬ 
sumptive heir to the throne—the king having then no son—he had 
a plausible reason for taking a deep interest in English affairs. 
He was also Stadtholder of Holland, and the flocki^ thither of 
the disaffected from England and Scotland was supposed to be 
by no means displeasing to him. The Dutch ambassadors at 
James’s court served as a safe means of communication between 
the refugees in Holland and the revived exclusionist party at 
home. Though William professed unbounded respect for his 
father-in-law, he took such good care never to attempt to check 
any enterprises against him until it was too late, that he labors 
under the imputation of being quite ready to profit by them if 
successful, even if they did not originate with him. 

§ 4. No sooner was James’s accession known in Holland than 
the various bands of refugees there began to prepare for an 
attack on him. Far more from their rank than then- talents, 
the Duke of Monmouth and the Earl of Argyle were regarded 
as their chiefs, but neither could make up his mind to serve 
under the other, and therefore two separate expeditions were 
resolved on. Strangely enough, Fletcher of Saltoun, a zealous 
republican and a Scotchman, chose to go with Monmouth, who 

1 The Roman Catholics would not take the oath of the king's supre¬ 
macy ; a the Quakers would not take any oath at all. 


\ 29, p. 330. 


Chapter II.] THE RESTORED STUARTS. 471 

Expeditions against King James defeated. The Leaders. 

prided himself on his royal blood; whilst Rnmbold, an old par¬ 
liamentary soldier, and Ayloffe, an infidel lawyer, two of the Rye- 
house plotters/ cast in their lot with Argyle/ who, a § 2g p m 
after what his sect esteemed many “ sinful compli- b ^ 2G ’ p 467 
ances” with prelacy, was now a Presbyterian and a 
covenanter of the class that had fled at Marston-moor c c § 46) p> 401 . 
from the cavaliers, and at Dunbar d from the round- d § 7 , p . 4 ,$o. 
heads. 

§ 5 . In spite of the remonstrances of James’s agent, the expedi¬ 
tions were prepared without any hindrance from the Dutch. Ar- 
gyle was first ready; but the project was hopeless from the first, 
not only because he was betrayed by a spy, but from the jealousy 
of his followers, who allowed him merely the name and not the 
authority of a leader; for whilst they wished to dethrone the 
king, they thought he would be well content if he could recover 
his forfeited estates . 6 He sailed from Holland early e g 26 p 467 
in May, 1685, with a small fleet, and repaired to the ' 
west of Scotland, where he was joined by many of the common men 
of his clan, the Campbells; but the gentry had been seized by the 
government, and other clans and some militia opposed him. After 
a few slight skirmishes his force melted away, and he was taken 
prisoner, as were Rumbold and Ayloffe. They all suffered shortly 
afterward. 

§ 6 . Whilst this rising was being crushed the parliament had 
met, and had settled a revenue for life on the king. They had also 
granted a liberal sum for the navy, when their deliberations were 
suddenly interrupted by the news that the Duke of Monmouth 
had landed with a small force at Lyme, in Dorsetshire, on the 11th 
of June. Following the precedent of Tudor times, he w T as at 
once attainted by act of parliament, on the strength of a letter 
from the Mayor of Lyme, and the sworn testimony of the messen¬ 
gers who had brought it that they had seen him in arms. 

§ 7. Monmouth’s insurrection was suppressed almost as easily 
as Argyle’s, but it was far more severely punished. He had only 
eighty men with him, but he brought arms for many more, and 
on his landing he was soon joined by about 6,000 of the noncon¬ 
formists, who abounded in the west of England. They were 
mostly cloth-workers and other poor workingmen; though many 
wealthy traders were heavily fined as his partisans, after the rebel¬ 
lion was suppressed. After a few days spent in trying to disci- 


472 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 


[Book IX. 


Duke of Monmouth’s Invasion. His fate. Judge Jeffreys. 

1 t + 

pline his disorderly host, he moved to Taunton, where, having 
assumed the title of king, he published a declaration charging 
“James, Duke of York,” with every imaginable atrocity, and 
offering a price for his head. Then he attempted to surprise 
Bristol, but the Duke of Beaufort held it against him with a body 
of militia. After a few days more of purposeless wandering 
about he repaired to Bridgewater, a town marked as particularly 
Puritanical during the civil war. 

§ 8. By this time the royal troops had reached the open plain of 
Sedgmoor, a few miles off, and Monmouth had the folly to make 
a night attack on them [July 6, 1685] in their quarters. This, as 
might have been expected, miserably failed, and he was the first to 
flee. His men held their ground till full 1,000 of them fell, when 
they a^o fled, and the royal general, who was a Frenchman, 1 ac¬ 
customed to the barbarous warfare of the Continent, summarily 
executed many of his prisoners on the field. Meanwhile Mon¬ 
mouth, with only two companions, tried to make his way to the 
coast. He was seized on the borders of the New Forest, and car¬ 
ried to London. At his own urgent request he was brought before 
the king, and pleaded piteously for life on any terms, even offering 
to become a Romanist, so that he might live a little longer. But 
he had accused the king of causing the Fire of London, a of mur¬ 
dering Sir Edmund Berry Godfrey, b and of poisoning 

a § i , p- »~ |^ g own brother, and it can hardly be wondered at 
b s 20 p 465 

that he was left to the fate that he had so rashly 
and wantonly provoked. Some few of his followers who could 
give useful information against others were allowed thus to earn 
their lives, but the great body were most severely dealt with, 
though James did not act so mercilessly as Henry the Eighth and 
Elizabeth had done under less provocation; for the 


C § 33, p. 321. 
d § 22, p. 362. 


leaders of the Pilgrimage of Grace c and the North¬ 
ern Rebellion d had not charged them personally with 

murder. 

§ 9. Sir George Jeffreys, a judge who had long been accus¬ 
tomed to try criminals at the Old Bailey, made the circuit of the 
West, holding what, even to this day, bears the name of the 
“Bloody Assize.” He was a man of coarse and brutal nature, 


1 Louis de Duras, a nephew of the celebrated Marshal Turenne. He bore the title 
of Earl of Faversham, which he had acquired through marrying the heiress of the 
Sondes family. 


CnAPTER II.] 


THE RESTORED STUARTS. 


473 


Englishmen made Slaves. The Test Act. Edict of Nantes revoked. 

and seems to have found a pleasure in his repulsive task, in 
the course of which he hanged 320 persons. Following the 
cruel example of the parliament in 1651, he ordered above 800 
others to be sent as slaves to the West Indies; and what ren¬ 
dered this the more odious was, that the unhappy creatures were 
granted to court favorites, who made a shameful gain by selling 
them to the planters, or extorting ruinous sums for pardons from 
the few that had anything to give. Some of Monmouth’s London 
partisans were also executed, Cornish the sheriff, formerly men¬ 
tioned,* being one of them. Two women also were a ^ ^ ^ ^ 
executed for sheltering fugitives, and their fate ex¬ 
cited much compassion. One of them, indeed, was supposed 
to suffer rather for her husband’s offences than her own, she 
being the widow of the famous “regicide” John 

° b § 14, p. 4oo. 

Lisle ; b and the other was betrayed into the hands of 
the law by the vile wretch that she had succored. For his ser¬ 

vices in this melancholy business Jeffreys was made lord chancellor. 

§ 10. James had adjourned his parliament when the rebellion 
broke out, in order that the members might be at liberty to take 
up arms in his cause if needful, which they were quite ready to do. 
When they assembled again, he told them that he had been obliged 
to employ several Romanist officers against the rebels, and having 
had good service from them, he could not in honor dismiss them; 
therefore he had dispensed with the Test Act c in their g 18 p 464 
favor. He also said that the militia had proved that 
it could not be trusted, and so he desired a large grant of money 
to keep a body of regular troops in pay. Both these statements 
were very displeasing to the parliament. They murmured, and at 
last granted only one-half of the required surq. The king, after 
trying in vain to bring their leading men over to his views by per¬ 
sonally conferring with them, dismissed them in anger, and they 
met no more in his reign. 

§ 11. Just at this time Louis the Fourteenth revoked the Edict 
of Nantes/ and in consequence many thousands of d g 48 p 3T3 
French Protestants repaired to England, bringing 
some useful arts with them, and also filling the country with coin¬ 
plaints of the cruelty and bad faith of their Romish sovereign. 
James acted with kindness to them; but this could not remove the 
impression that even truly loyal men had already begun to enter¬ 
tain, that both their liberties and their religion were exposed to 


474 


[Book IX. 


HISTORY OF EXGLAND. 

The King induced to re-establish Romanism. 

danger at Us hands; and some of the clergy, as a mode of show¬ 
ing their distrust, kept their churches closed on the anniversary of 
his accession. 

§ 12. Governments are usually strengthened by unsuccessful re¬ 
bellions; but it was not so with James, owing to his being in the 
hands of a treacherous adviser, who afterwards boasted of having 
purposely induced him to take the steps that led to his ruin. This 
was his secretary, Robert Spencer, Earl of Sunderland, a man as 
base as Shaftesbury himself, a who, with the help of 
a § 17 , p. 463. E( ^ war( ^ p e t r e, a Jesuit, pushed him on to attack the 
Church of England, which had suffered so much for his family, 
and to make efforts for the re-establishment of Romanism. This 
all moderate Roman Catholics, the papal nuncio, and even the 
Pope himself, tried in vain to dissuade him from. Sunderland and 
Petre knew that the king distrusted parliaments, saying that his 
father had made concessions to them and had lost his head, an 
they persuaded him not to summon one. They knew also that his 
heart was bent on raising up his own church, and they easily per¬ 
suaded him that the Church of England would feel bound by its 
doctrine of non-resistance, and would never oppose him, let him 
act as he might. 

§ 13. Fortified by this dishonest advice, James now openly dis¬ 
pensed not only with the Test Act, b but with the Act 
b § 18, p. 464. Uniformity, 0 by granting dispensations to a few 
c § 5, P . 458. clergymen) who m become Roman Catholics, stiff 
to hold their benefices in spite of its enactments. He bestowed a 
pension of £1,000 on Bishop Leybourne, a Romish ecclesiastic, 
and gave large sums for the support of chapels, where priests and 
monks, not content with proclaiming their own doctrines, attacked 
those of the church, whilst its preachers were commanded not to 
reply, on pain of the royal displeasure. Dr. John Sharp, a Lon¬ 
don clergyman, disobeyed this most unwise order, on which the 
bishop was commanded to suspend him from his benefice. The 
bishop. Dr. Compton, alleged that he had no legal power to do so, 
on which, in defiance of an express statute, a Court of Ecclesiasti¬ 
cal Commission was created, by which the bishop himself was 
suspended from office, though the property of his see was not in¬ 
terfered with. 

§ 14. Next, James’s own coachman was employed to bring an 
action for penalties against Sir Edward Hales, a Roman Catholic 


475 


Chapter II.] THE RESTORED STUARTS. 

Offices filled by Roman Catholics. Roman Catholics in the Privy Council. 

gentleman of Kent, for accepting a military commission, when the 
judges decided that the king had the power to dispense with the 
ordinary oaths. In consequence of this decision a large number 
of Romanists received commissions; and when, in the summer of 
1636, a camp was formed on Hounslow-heath, almost all the officers 
were of that persuasion, many of them being recent converts to 
what was called, not Catholicism, which was thought too civil, 
nor popery, which was thought too rude, but “the king’s reli¬ 
gion.” Here mass was publicly said, at first in the tents of the chief 
officers, Lord Faversham and Lord Dunbarton, but soon a large 
chapel was built, to which the king and most of his courtiers 
ordinarily repaired. 

§ 15. One man was found to speak out what so many others felt, 
and he suffered accordingly. This was Samuel Johnson, who was 
already in prison for libelling the king when Duke . g 8 p 459 
of York.® He now wrote “A Humble and Hearty 
Address to all English Protestants in the Army,” which was widely 
distributed in the camp. Some expressions were thought to re¬ 
commend regicide, and it plainly justified taking up arms in 
defence of “the Bible, the Great Charter, and the Bill of Rights.” 
Johnson was degraded from the priesthood and whipped through 
the streets, and many who entirely disapproved of the king’s pro¬ 
ceedings, had yet little sympathy with such an assailant. 

§ 16. Strong in his conviction of the fidelity of his army, the 
king now openly restored the profession of Romanism. Convents 
were founded in different parts of London, and the Jesuits opened 
two great schools, to which their known skill in teaching attracted 
even Protestant scholars. Several Romish peers were sworn of the 
privy council, and Sunderland avowed his conversion. At Oxford, 
John Massey, a Romanist, was, by virtue of the dispensing power, 
admitted as dean of one of the colleges (Christ Church), and Oba- 
diah Walker, the master of another university, opened a chapel 
where mass was publicly celebrated. Thus stood affairs at the 
end of the second year of the king’s reign. 

§ 17. When James came to the throne, the Duke of 6rmond b 
was recalled from Ireland, which he had ruled for 

__ .. .. . T b § P- 4o9. 

more than twenty years, and was succeeded as lord- 
lieutenant by the Earl of Clarendon, who was the king’s brother- 
in-law ; but the real power was in the hands of Richard Talbot, 
Earl of Tyrconnel, the general. Talbot was a vehement Romanist, 


476 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 


[Book IX. 


Affairs in Ireland. 


Breack with the Established Church. 


whose object was to raise a Romish army to assist James in his 
projects on England, and to make Ireland a secure retreat for him 
should these fail. Clarendon was therefore displaced [a.d. 1687 ), 
and Talbot was made lord deputy, which put both the civil and 
the military power in his hands. He had long avowed his desire 
to overturn the iniquitous settlement of the land that Charles had, 
for a bribe, consented to, a and the Protestants now 
a § 8, p. 4o9. floc k e( j oyer to England, exclaiming that another 
b ^ 34 ’ p ‘ 415 ‘ Irish massacre b was impending, and increasing the 
distrust of the king and his Romish counsellors that was now 
everywhere entertained. 

§ 18. Unwarned by these signs, and pushed on by Sunderland 
and Petre, the king now took the steps that soon brought about 
an open breach with the Anglican Church, and his own ruin. In 
these proceedings he had the support of four bishops—Cartwright 
of Chester, Crewe of Durham, Parker of Oxford, and Sprat of 
Rochester—all weak, unprincipled men who had once been Puri¬ 
tans, but had 'joined the Episcopal Church when it w r as in the 
ascendant, and were willing to assist in even the worst measures 
rather than hazard their preferments. His first step was to issue a 
declaration of liberty of conscience for Romanists and noncon¬ 
formists, which, however, was but coldly received, the real inten¬ 
tion, as in the case of Charles’s “ indulgence,” being but too evi¬ 
dent. Then the University of Cambridge was ordered to confer a 
degree on Alban Francis, a monk, and on its refusal, Dr. Peachell, 
the vice-chancellor, was deprived of office. Next, Anthony Far¬ 
mer, a man of bad character, who had been first a churchman, 
then a dissenter, and now professed to be a Romanist, was recom¬ 
mended to the fellows of Magdalen College, Oxford, for their 
president. They declined to comply, and chose John Hough, 
who had been the chaplain of the Duke of Ormond in Reland. 

They were summoned before the Ecclesiastical Com- 
c ^ 13, p ' 4<4 ' mission, 0 and threatened by Jeffreys, d who was at 

d § 9 p 47 J J 

its head, but declined to give way. At last a board 
of visit^s was sent to Oxford, who broke open their doors, drove 
Hough and the fellows out by force, and placed Parker, the 
bishop, in possession, Farmer being allowed even by them to be 
unworthy of the office. This violent interference with property 
was taken as an indication that the subject was considered to 
have no absolute right in anything if the king chose to take it 


Chapter II.] THE RESTORED STUARTS. 477 

Pope’s Nuncio officially received. Army disaffected. Revolution. 

from him, and it raised a storm that could never afterwards be 
allayed. 

§ 19. The king, however, was easily persuaded that he had 
triumphed. He re-established the camp at Hounslow, filled every 
corporation with Roman Catholics or Dissenters, as all noncon¬ 
formists were now called, gave orders to summon a parliament, 
and received the papal nuncio in state. Nobles and gentlemen 
who had hitherto supported him, now resigned office; but he filled 
up their places with Romanists, and made a progress through 
the country, where, strangely enough, he was generally well re¬ 
ceived. So well, indeed, that early in the following year [a.d. 
1688] he not only again issued his declaration for liberty of con¬ 
science, but ordered that every clergyman should read it in his 
church on two following Sundays. Sancroft, Archbishop of Can¬ 
terbury, and six other bishops, 1 presented a petition to the king in 
his closet, representing that they could not in conscience direct 
their clergy to obey this order. Instead of listening to them he 
sent them to the Tower, and soon afterward had them tried for a 
libel. They were acquitted, and James’s fate was sealed. 

§ 20. The soldiers in his camp rejoiced in his hearing at the 
result. Churchmen and Dissenters, Whigs and Tories, were for 
a time united; and a body of seven “ Liberals,” as they would 
now be called, 2 who had long secretly communicated with the 
Prince of Orange, a and shaped their, conduct to ad- a g 3 p 470 
vance his views, now openly invited him to come 
with an army to deliver the country from “ popery and slavery.” 
The Prince had long expected this, and therefore was prepared 
for it. He soon after published a declaration, saying that he 
would come to procure the holding of a free parliament, which 
should secure the rights and liberties of Englishmen, and should 
also investigate the birth of a son that had just been born to the 
king—a matter in which the princess his wife was deeply inter¬ 
ested. This declaration, backed as it was by the assembling of a 

1 William Lloyd, of St. Asaph ; Thomas Ken, of Bath and Wells ; Sir Jonathan Tre- 
lawney, of Bristol; John Lake, of Chichester; Francis Turner, of Ely; and Thomas 
White, of Peterborough. 

2 They were the Earls of Danby. Devonshire, and Shrewsbury; Lord Lumley Comp¬ 

ton, Bishop of London; Henry Sydney, and Edward Russell. All had received some 
personal affront or Injury from the king, and Sidney had seen his p m 

brother, and Russell his cousin, lose tlicir heads on the scaffold.* 


478 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book IX. 

The King alarmed. Arrival of the Prince of Orange. King deserted. 

fleet and army in Holland, and by riots in London, where the new 
Roman Catholic chapels were destroyed, caused the king to re¬ 
trace his late steps. He restored their charters to London and 
other towns, dissolved the Ecclesiastical Commis- 
» § 13, p. 4 <4. g | on a replaced the president and fellows of Mag- 
b § 18, p ' 4T6, dalen, b and parted with his treacherous advisers Sun- 
c § 12, P. 475. derland and Petre .c But it was now too late. 

§ 21. William sailed from Holland, and, driven by a strong east 
wind, that kept James’s fleet in the Thames, and also hindered Tyr- 
connel sending troops from Ireland, passed down the Channel, and 
landed his whole force without opposition at Torbay, in Devon¬ 
shire, on the 5th of November, 1688. No one joined him at first, 
as he had been expected to land in Yorkshire. But the signers of 
the invitation were busy in various parts of the country raising 
forces, and, worse still for the king, the officers of the royal army 
were not to be relied on. Lord Cornbury, the king’s nephew, set 
the example of desertion, and was soon followed by Prince George 
of Denmark, his son-in-law (husband of his daughter Anne), by 
Lord Churchill, and others. The king, who had joined his troops 
at Salisbury, now returned in alarm to London, only to learn that 
his daughter Anne had fled to the insurgents, escorted by Bishop 
Compton, her tutor, who in this extremity resumed the buffi coat 
and jack-boots of a trooper. 1 “ God help me,” he cried; “even 
my own children have forsaken me! ” And from this time forward 
he thought only of securing the safety of his wife and infant child 
by sending them out of the country. 

§ 22. To gain time for this he allowed commissioners to proceed 
to the prince at Hungerf ord, when an agreement was made that 
the invaders should remain at the distance of forty miles from 
London on one side, and the king’s troops as far off in the oppo¬ 
site direction, so that “ a free parliament ” might meet. But James 
did not intend to wait for that. He sent his queen and son away 
by nigM to France, and followed them in disguise a day later 
[December 11], but he was stopped near Faversham, being taken 
for a Romish priest. After a few days’ detention there, he was 
brought back to London, much to the discontent of the Prince and 
his adherents. 

§ 28. As soon as James’s flight was known, a number of the peers 

1 He was a son of the Earl of Northampton, and had served in the royal guard in his 
youth. 


Chapter II.] THE RESTORED STUARTS. 479 

King flees to France. Provisional Government. William and Mary proclaimed. 

assembled, and, in concert with the citizens of London, invited 
William to provide for the public security. Jeffreys a 
w r as seized whilst endeavoring to escape disguised as * ^ 18, P * 4<6 ' 
a sailor, and placed in the Tower, where he died soon afterward. 
Sunderland and Petre, the papal nuncio, and Bishop Cartwright, 
had already escaped. On James’s return the Dutch troops marched 
into London, and he was peremptorily ordered to take up his resi¬ 
dence at Ham, near Richmond. He obtained permission to go to 
Rochester instead. Here, if not before, he learned that a plan of 
imprisoning him abroacfhad been proposed, and, against the ad¬ 
vice of some of his firmest adherents, he at once abandoned the 
contest and fled to France, where he and his family were most 
cordially received by Louis the Fourteenth. 

§ 24. On the flight of the king government authority was 
assumed by the House of Lords as soon as they could assemble. 
About ninety bishops and peers met on the 25th of December, as an 
Hereditary Senatorial Council. After having declared the throne 
to be vacant, and asserted that the rule of a Romish prince was 
not consistent with the welfare of a Protestant State, they requested 
William of Orange, who was a good soldier, an able statesman, 
and a firm Protestant, to take the control of public affairs. About 
one hundred and fifty persons, who had sat in Parliament during 
the reign of Charles the Second, met the next day as a House of 
Commons ; and so a provisional government was formed. At the 
request of this government William issued writs for a Convention 
on the 22d of January following. It met. Long discussions fol¬ 
lowed. Some did not think it proper to alter the line of succes¬ 
sion. They would have a regency to carry on the government 
until James’s son, then seven months old, should be of age. So 
thought Sancroft, the Archbishop of Canterbury. Others wished 

to make James’s daughter, the Princess Mary, b queen. 

° ^ b e s, p. 470. 

But her husband soon let it be plainly seen that 

nothing short of the crown for himself would satisfy him. 

§ 25. It was at length agreed that, for form’s sake, the princess 
should be associated with him. She had no reluctance thus to 
supplant her father ; and accordingly they were proclaimed King 
and Queen of England, France, and Ireland on the 13th of Feb¬ 
ruary, 1689. The Scottish crown was tendered to and accepted by 
them a short time afterward. In each case a Declaration of Right, 
enumerating what were claimed as the ancient liberties of the 


480 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book IX. 

Monarchy on a new basis. Malcontents and Jacobites. 

people, was presented, and its observance sworn to by the new 
rulers. This was far more full and explicit than the promises of 
good government that former sovereigns had given at their corona¬ 
tion. & From this time forward the monarchy was established upon 
the basis, not of divine right or hereditary succession, but of 
defined rights and duties; and what the Long Parliament had in 
vain attempted was at length brought to pass. The new sovereigns 
were crowned in April [1689], when the ceremony was attended 
with great public rejoicings. 


CHAPTER III. 

keign of William and Maky. [a.d. 1689 to 1694.] 

§ 1. The apparent unity of parties after the flight of James and 
the coming of W r illiam of Orange was deceptive. The ultra- 
royalists, Romanists, and High Churchmen hoped that William 
would, after “ securing the liberties of the English people,” as lie 
proposed to do, in some way reinstate his father-in-law as the 
legitimate sovereign of the realm, but so hedged by constitutional 
restraints as to guarantee those liberties. They were sorely disap¬ 
pointed ; and when William and Mary were enthroned, the mal¬ 
contents asserted that the prince, from the beginning, had in¬ 
tended to secure the crown for himself. Very soon the partisans 
of James, who were called “Jacobites” (Jacobus being the Latin 
of James), began to plot for the overthrow of the new monarchs, 
and they were beset with difficulties from the outset. 

§ 2. James had many adherents, especially in Scotland and Ire¬ 
land ; and a large number of subjects refused to renounce their 
allegiance to him. There was disaffection in the army also. It 
appeared when two Scotch regiments refused to obey orders, on 
the ground that they were amenable only to the Estates of Scotland, 
and broke out into open mutiny. They were speedily arrested 
and conducted to London, when the king pardoned them, but put 
them out of the way of temptation by sending them to serve in 
Holland. It was a salutary and needful lesson to prevent insub¬ 
ordination in the army at a critical time, for there was actual 
insurrection in Ireland, threatened insurrection in Scotland, and 



481 


Chapter III.] THE RESTORED STUARTS. 

William’s Policy. War with Prance. Victory at La Hogue. 

impending war with France. All these William was called upon 

to deal promptly with. Fortunately the parliament was a ^ 

true to his cause, and seconded his measures. It was a ' P ’ 

b § 27, p. 411. 

whig a assembly, and made the Long Parliament b its 
guide. 

§ 3. Personally William was unpopular. He was cold, austere, 
and sometimes sullen in his manner. He did not speak the Eng¬ 
lish language well. He was surrounded by foreigners to the ex¬ 
clusion of native-born Englishmen. And the wise measure of 
placing his own tried and, experienced officers in command of 
English troops, created a national jealousy which was detrimental 
to the public welfare. And so it was that, from the beginning of 
his reign, William was compelled to meet discontent, opposition, 
and treachery. He was soon made aware of the fact that he was 
disliked, and took no pains to appease the uneasiness. He re¬ 
solved to teach his new subjects that in him they had a stem mas¬ 
ter. It was a resolution that brought him much trouble. 

§ 4. War with France followed immediately on William’s acces¬ 
sion, but the first battles fought were discouraging. Admiral 
Herbert had an indecisive action with the French in Bantry Bay, 
in May, 1689, but it was so nearly a victory that he was created 
Earl of Torrington. In the following year, however, he sustained 
a severe defeat near Beachv Head, and the French remained for 
some time masters of the English Channel. The Dutch suffered 
greatly in the action; and William, believing that they had been 
sacrificed to national jealousy, dismissed Torrington. The chief 
command in the navy was then given to Admiral Russell, one of 
the many men employed by William, who, it was said, had no 
faith in the stability of his government, and who therefore served 
him only by halves, and kept up a correspondence -with James, 
their old master. He, however, gained a victory at La Hogue 
[May 19, 1692], which hindered an intended invasion of England 
by the French; but an unsuccessful attack on St. Malo afterward 
caused Russell to fall into disgrace, and he was removed. 

§ 5. The first positive opposition to William’s rule came from 
men who had suffered from James, but who professed not to be¬ 
lieve that any earthly power could relieve them from the oaths 
that they had sworn to him. The chief of these c g 24 p 479 
were Sancroft c and seven other bishops, wlio de¬ 
clined to take the oaths to the new government, though the 
21 


482 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book IN. 

Disaffection of Churchmen. Favorites rewarded. Civil War in Scotland. 

penalty was the forfeiture of their sees. About 400 other High 
Church clergymen followed their example, at the like sacrifice, 
and a much larger number of laymen also refused the oaths. 
Thus was formed a body of men in the State that existed for 
nearly a century, and was known as the Nonjurors. These men 
declined to acknowledge William for conscience’ sake, but they 
were not the most formidable opponents of his government. 

These were found among the men who had invited 
» § 20 , p. 4(7. an( ^ k a d taken office under him, but who were 

now engaged in ceaseless intrigues against him. William, how¬ 
ever, was a keen observer. He kndw their baseness, and though he 
found it convenient to employ them, he gave his confidence only to 
a few old friends who had accompanied him from Holland, and 
on whom he lavished wealth and honors without limit. 

§ 6. In the first three years of William’s reign, forfeited lands 
in Ireland, to the annual value of £200,000, came into his hands, 
and were meant to be sold to meet the expenses of the war ; but 
he lavished much the greater part on the foreigners in his employ, 
to support the new titles he had conferred upon them, beside 
giving them every considerable post in his court. One especial 
favorite, Bentinck, whom he had created Earl of Portland, received 
also the greater part of a Welsh county ; and King James's private 
estate (worth £26,000 a year) was bestowed on Elizabeth Villiers, 
another favorite, who was created Countess of Orkney. This 
system was carried to such an extravagant extent that at last [a.d. 
1699] the parliament interfered, and insisted on the grants being 
revoked; but as those who had received them were allowed to 
keep all that they had drawn from them for years, any services 
that they had rendered were amply repaid. 

§ 7. Though there was deep discontent through the whole of 
William’s reign, accompanied by several plots against his life, there 
was yet no open resistance to his authority in England. But in 
Scotland, within a very few months after his accession, a civil war 
broke out, headed by General Graham of Claverhouse, a devoted 
partisan of King James, who had created him Viscount Dun¬ 
dee. Dundee had served abroad with renown, and was afterward 
employed in repressing the proceedings of the freedom-loving 
Covenanters, though his wife belonged to a noted Puritan family, 
the Cochranes. As Graham of Claverhouse, or more commonly 
“ Bloody Clavers,” he and his dragoons were objects of mingled 


483 


Chapter III.] THE RESTORED STUARTS. 

A Violent Persecutor. Civil War in Ireland. 

fear and hatred, and he was more detested by the persecuted non¬ 
conformists of Scotland than any other man of his day. He dis¬ 
persed their conventicles, and shot as rebels the friends who kept 
up communication between them and the Dutch and the old re¬ 
publican party in England. He was summoned to court by James 
shortly before the Revolution, when he offered to raise his Scottish 
troops to 10,000 men and attack the invaders. James would not 
consent to this, but charged him, instead, to return to Scotland 
and support his cause there. Dundee accordingly attended the 
Convention at Edinburgh, as the local government was called, but 
being threatened with assassination he withdrew,, with only sixty 
of his dragoons, and erected the royal standard in the High¬ 
lands. The clans flocked to him, and he soon afterward at¬ 
tacked and totally defeated a much larger body of regular troops 
at Killiecrankie [July 27, 1689], but fell himself in the action, 
when his followers dispersed, though they did not formally submit 
to the new government until long afterward. 

§ 8. The war in Ireland was of much longer duration, and had, 
in fact, commenced before James left England. Alarmed at Tyr- 
connel’s proceedings,* 1 the Protestants drew together 
in the north, and fixing on Londonderry as their ’ P " 
headquarters, they shut the gates and refused to admit the royal 
troops. Enniskillen, another stronghold of the Cromwellian set¬ 
tlers, 11 followed their example. The fugitive King 

r ® & b § 12, p. 432. 

James, who, helped by Louis of France, was seeking 

every opportunity to regain his lost throne, landed in Ireland in 
March, 1689, with a small French force, and soon had an army 
around him. He marched against Londonderry, expecting that it 
•would at once surrender, but being disappointed in this, he returned 
to Dublin, and held a parliament, which repealed the preliminary 
Act of Settlement' attainted a large number of Wil- 

° c § 24, p. 479. 

liam and Mary’s adherents, and declared that Ireland 

was no longer a dependency of England. Londonderry was 
closely invested, and reduced to great distress; but the inhabit¬ 
ants, headed by George Walker, an aged clergyman, held out for 
105 days, when they were relieved by succors sent from England. 

§ 9. A large body of troops was sent to Ireland under Schom- 
berg, one of William’s most trusted officers, in August, 1689 ; but 
they remained encamped in a most unhealthy situation for months, 
and suffered so much from sickness that, in the ensuing year, they 


484 • HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book IX. 

Protestants victorious in Ireland. League against France. National Debt. 

were not fit to take the field. William himself passed over in 
June, 1690, and James advanced from Dublin to meet him. The 
battle of the Boyne followed [July 1], when the Roman Catholic 
Irish were defeated with loss, and James very soon afterward re¬ 
turned to France. 1 William besieged Limerick in vain, and then 
left Ireland. The Earl of Marlborough took Cork and Kinsale, 
but was soon afterward succeeded by Ginkell, who, in the following 
year [a.d. 1691], brought the war to a close by gaining the battle 
of Aghrim, and procuring the surrender of Limerick. For this 
service Ginkell was thanked by the parliament, and was created 
Earl of Athlone by the king. Thenceforward Ireland was ruled 
by the triumphant party with a rigor which so utterly crushed 
the spirit of the native population who had adhered to James, that 
they quitted the country by thousands. 

§ 10. Soon after his return from Ireland, William went over to 
the Continent, w r here by his exertions a fresh league was formed 
against France; and the Huguenots were induced to join him in 
regiments by his promise that no peace should be made until the 
Edict of Nantes a was re-established. It was agreed 
a § 11 p. 4(3. an arm y of 220,000 men should be maintained, 

and England had to pay for far the greater part. It was at first 
attempted to raise the vast sums required by a poll-tax, which 
ranged from £10 for a peer to 4s. for a workingman, but this being 
found insufficient, money was borrowed at high interest, and 
thus was begun the present National Debt of Great Britain. The 
debt in 1697, when the war ended, was about £5,000,000 
($25,000,000). It is now (1871) almost $4,000,000,000, or nearly 
$1,800,000,000 more than the debt of the United States at the close 
of the late civil war, and which is now about $2,200,000. 

§ 11. A horrible affair occurred in Scotland at the beginning of 
the year 1692. The secretary for Scotland, Sir John Dalrymple 
(but better known as the Master of Stair), and the Earl of Breadal- 
bane had money intrusted to them to bribe the Highlanders into 
submission, but neither of them was willing so to employ it. 
Breadalbane desired to keep it himself, and Stair openly said that 
lead and steel would answer better. Threatening proclamations 
were therefore issued, and all the clans but that of Macdonald of 
Glencoe came in by the appointed time. Owing to a mistake as 

1 From that time until now the Irish Protestants have been called “Orangemen,” 
and the sectarian animosity then engendered still prevails. 


485 


Chapter III.] THE RESTORED STUARTS. 

The Massacre of Glencoe. Success of the French. English reverses. 

to the officer that they were to apply to, they were a few days late, 
but they were accepted, and formally taken into protection. Stair, 
however, who had a strange hatred against them, concealed this 
fact, and had no difficulty in getting a written order from the 
deceived king for “ the extirpation of that set of thieves.” He 
at once sent a body of troops among them, raised from the Camp¬ 
bells, who, after residing apparently as friends in their dwellings 
for a fortnight, suddenly fell on the unsuspecting people, and 
murdered the old chief and about sixty others, a child eight years 
old included, in cold blood. At least as many more perished 
from cold and hunger (it was mid-winter) among the mountains, 
and a remnant escaped, only because some other troops sent against 
them happily missed their way. This sad affair is known as the 
Massacre of Glencoe. 

§ 12. Several of William’s allies in the Protestant league a were 
but lukewarm in the cause, and for a while the French a § 10 p 484 
carried all before them. Their navy had recovered b § 4 ’ p 481 
all its losses at La Hogue, b and in 1693 they captured 
the English and Dutch Smyrna fleet, causing a loss to the mer¬ 
chants of upwards of £1,000,000. Their privateers swarmed in 
the Channel, and the attacks made on several of the French ports 
failed to do as much damage as had been expected. New ex¬ 
plosive machines had been invented for the attack by a Dutch 
engineer named Meesters, and were employed by the English witli 
excellent effect, but their heavy expense was so loudly complained 
of by the opposition that the unpopularity of William and his 
countrymen increased. •. 

§ 13. For a time things went on no better on land, under Wil¬ 
liam’s own eye. In 1692 he attacked the French at Steenkirke, 
and received a terrible defeat, which was made harder to bear by 
the reported insolence and brutality of Count Solmes, one of his 
foreign generals, who, it was said, pushed forward some newly- 
raised English regiments against the French Guards, then esteemed 
the best troops in the world, and instead of supporting them when 
hardly pressed, stood aloof with his Germans, and remarked, “Let 
us see how the bull-dogs will fight.” In the next year William 
was driven out of his entrenched camp at Landen, where the Eng¬ 
lish suffered again severely; but he had the satisfaction of seeing 
Solmes among the slain. 

§ 14. The campaign of the following year raised the hopes of 


486 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 


[Book LX. 

Peace of Ryswick. Change in Parliament. Death of Queen Mary. 

William, because he sustained no defeat; and in 1695, mainly 
owing to the desperate courage of the British troops, he captured 
the strong town of Namur, and made a prisoner of Boufflers, one 
of the most renowned French marshals. All the parties to the 
war had now nearly exhausted their resources; therefore, in 1696 
little was undertaken in the field, and negotiations for peace were 
entered into. After long discussion, a peace was signed at Rys¬ 
wick, a house between the Hague and Delft that belonged to 
William, on the 20th of September, 1697. Its terms were highly 
satisfactory to the English people; for Louis the Fourteenth was 
thereby compelled to withhold all further support to James, and 
acknowledge William to be monarch of England. And when the 
king returned from the Continent he was received with great en¬ 
thusiasm as a conqueror and deliverer, and peace for England 
seemed to be assured. 

§ 15. Whilst the war went on several changes occurred among 
the parties at home. The Convention Parliament a 


a § 24, p. 479. 
b § 18, p. 464. 


, § 20, p. 477. 


had been mainly composed of Whigs, b but the suc¬ 
ceeding parliament [a.d. 1690-1695] was a Tory as¬ 
sembly. By it the undue zeal of the Whigs was controlled, who, 
like the Tories, wished to proscribe every one not exactly of their 
own opinions. The two parties, by mutual restraint, secured wiser 
legislation. The Tories expressed great dissatisfaction at seeing 
Sunderland® again in office [a.d. 1693], and making 
a boast of having betrayed King James; but William 
found him useful, and so retained him. In return, an attempt 
was made to prevent government officers sitting in the House, and 
an act was passed [November 22, 1694] providing for the calling 
of a new parliament every three years. To this act the royal assent 
was given on the 22d of December. 

§ 16. Within a week after that royal assent was given, which 
gratified the English people as a popular triumph, Queen Mary 
died [December 28,1694] of malignant small-pox, in the thirty-third 
year of her age. She was childless. She had been a most exem¬ 
plary wife and woman. Whilst she admired the commanding 
intellect of her husband, and loved him tenderly, she was made 
one of the most unhappy of women by his open unfaithfulness to 
her. He grieved for her with a passion that seemed foreign to his 
nature. Thenceforward, by the authority of the Convention Par¬ 
liament, d he ruled as sole sovereign, with the title of 


d § 24, p. 479. 


William the Third. 


4S7 


Chapter IV.] THE RESTORED STUARTS. 

A Family Feud healed. Plots. Execution Of a Conspirator. 

CHAPTER IV. 

reign of William the Third, [a.d. 1694 to 1702.] 

§ 1. William’s first act after the death of Ills wife was the 
consenting to a reconciliation with the Princess Anne, Mary’s sister, 
and wife of Prince. George of Denmark. That Princess had shown 
violent opposition to William and Mary; and the harsh words 
which she had applied to the king so embittered Mary, that in her 
dying moments she refused to be reconciled to Anne. The king 
presented Anne a greater part of Mary’s jewels, and appropriated 
the palace of St. James for her future residence. 

§ 2. Rumors of plots for the assassination of William, after the 
death of the queen, were life: some were true and some were false. 
It was difficult to distinguish them. Spies and perjurers were, as 
usual, plentiful about the court, who were ever ready to swear 
away the life of any one for the sake of personal gain or the 
gratification of malice. But some actual plots were exposed. 
Among these was one to assassinate the king at Tumham Green, 
in 1696, devised by Sir John Frund and others, who were made to 
suffer for their crime. 

§ 3. From 1696 to 1698 the Whigs were again the ruling party 
in parliament. Completing what the Tories had begun, they had 
lately passed a law regulating the mode of proceeding in trials 
for treason, the chief provision being that there should be two 
witnesses to the offence. Sir John Fenwick, a Northumbrian gen¬ 
tleman, who had been an active confederate in the a § ^ p 480 
Jacobite 41 plot for the invasion of England, b lay in b§8 ’ p 483 
prison charged with treason, but one of the two wit¬ 
nesses against him, men of infamous character, suddenly disap¬ 
peared. He therefore, according to law, must have been acquitted 
if tried by any ordinary court. But he had, unfortunately, in an 
interview with William, ventured to charge several of his minis¬ 
ters, and also Admiral Russell, 0 with corresponding c § 4? p 481 ' 
with King James—a charge now known to be true, 
and currently believed even then. The guilty men would not 
allow so dangerous an accuser to live, and Russell brought in a 
bill of attainder against him. It was passed, and Sir John was 
executed on the 28th of January, 1697. He was the last man who 
was thus dealt with in England. 


488 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book IX. 

Reduction of the Army. Designs against Spain. King and Parliament disagree. 

§ 4. The war being now over, the parliament in which the Tories 
had recovered then* influence set themselves to reduce the army, 
which they accomplished in spite of William’s opposition. They 
also obliged him to send back his Dutch guards, telling him truly 
that his real safety was in the affections of his subjects. They 
made strict inquiries into some alleged enormous bribes that the 
India Company had given to secure a renewal of their charter; and 
at last they insisted that the forfeited lands that had been granted 
to Portland a and others should be sold for the public 
»§ 6, p. 482. k ene gk William was much offended, and at first 
threatened to resign the crown, but he soon changed his plan, and 
corresponded with Louis of France for the partition of the vast 
Spanish monarchy, on the death of the then sick king. His policy 
in this matter seems to have been founded on the idea that a war 
would spring out of it, and put an end to inquiries and interfe¬ 
rences at home. 

§ 5. In this he judged rightly, though he did not live to take a 
part in the contest. Charles the Second of Spain was in a dying 
state, and no less than three princes had claims to his dominions, 
through marriage. William, above all things, dreaded that they 
should fall to the King of France, and Louis, to prevent a new 
coalition, pretended to be willing to claim only a small share for 
his son, and leave the rest to be divided between the Emperor and 
the Elector of Bavaria. Though he, as w.ell as the other princes, was 
pledged to secrecy, he took care that the chief points of the treaty 
should become known to the King of Spain, w T hilst he kept back 
his own share in it. Charles, naturally indignant at the proceed¬ 
ing, determined to thwart the scheme, and therefore made a -will 
leaving all his dominions to a grandson of Louis. On Charles’s 
death, shortly after, the wall was published by Louis, and loud 
were the complaints of his treachery. But he was too strong to 
be attacked, unless England headed the confederacy. The parlia¬ 
ment was unwilling to engage in another war solely to gratify 
what seemed to be William’s ambition, and the Commons im¬ 
peached Lord Somers the chancellor, Portland, and other minis¬ 
ters who had been engaged ill making the partition treaty. A 
quarrel on a point of form between the Lords and Commons 
prevented the trial taking place, but both Portland and Somers 
lost their offices. 

§ 6. William, deeply offended, now went over to Holland, sur- 


489 


Ciiapteh IY.] THE RESTORED STUARTS. 

Death of Kings James and William. Character of William. 

veyed the frontier, sent a fleet t q lie off Dunkirk, and did other acts 
calculated to bring on a war, when Louis saved him further trou¬ 
ble. James the Second died in 1701, and Louis at once recog¬ 
nized his son (James Francis Edward) as king. 1 This was an 
undeniable breach of the treaty of Ryswick. a The 
unfortunate youth was attainted merely on account. ’ P * 
of his birth, and war with France was determined on. But be¬ 
fore anything could be done the crown of England was placed 
upon the head of another. 'William, while riding out to Hamp¬ 
ton Court [February 21, 1702], was thrown from his horse. His 
collar-bone was fractured, A fever endued, and on Sunday morn¬ 
ing, the 8th of March, 1702, he died in Kensington Palace. During 
William’s latter days an act for securing the Protestant succession, 
known as the Act of Settlement, was hastily passed by parliament, 
in virtue of which the House of Brunswick was, a few years later, 
called to the throne. 

§ 7. William’s personal appearance was not striking. He was 
of middle stature, thin, and of delicate constitution. He had 
been afflicted with asthma from his infancy. His countenance was 
quite remarkable. He had an aquiline nose, sparkling eyes, and 
large forehead. His character seems full of contradictions, but 
the good evidently preponderated over the evil. Smollett says 
that “ in courage, fortitude, and equanimity, he rivalled the most 
eminent warriors of antiquity.” Like other men in power, and 
with a long line of predecessors on the throne of England as his 
precedents, William often gratified his personal desires and ambi¬ 
tion without regard to the public good. But whatever may have 
been his secret motives in the part he took in the revolution of 
1688, b and his subsequent contests with Louis the b § 21 p 478 
Fourteenth, ostensibly in defence of Protestantism, it 
cannot be denied that the revolution was productive of much 
good. His reign began a new era in constitutional government, 
and opened the way toward the attainment of religious and poli¬ 
tical freedom for the people of the British realm. 

1 He was bom June 10, 1688, not long before his father’s abdication.® During the 
life of Louis he resided in France, but afterwards he removed to Avi- a § ^ p 478 
gnon, which belonged to the Pope, and eventually to Home, where he 
died December 30, 1765. He married the Princess Clementina of Poland, had two 
ams, Charles Edward, caUed the Young Chevalier, or Young Pretender, and Henry, the 
Cardinal of York. 

A 


21 * 


490 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 


Accession of Queen Anne. 


[Book IX . 

Her Character and Favorites. 


‘ § 1, p. 480. 


b § 6, p. 488. 


CHAPTER Y. 

REIGN of Anne. [a.d. 1702 TO 1714.] 

§ 1. On the death of William, James’s youngest daughter, Anne, 
became [March 8, 1702] monarch of England. She was then in 
the thirty-eighth year of her age, but was possessed of little more 
self-reliance than a girl of fifteen. The Jacobites * 
had entertained strong hopes that she would reject 
the crown in favor of her .half-brother, James Francis Edward, b 
who, in order to avoid questions of ceremony in 
social intercourse, was known as the Chevalier St. 
George. But they were disappointed. Anne was a weak woman, 
who loved to be ruled rather than to rule, and her heart inclined 
to her brother, but she could never summon the resolution to take 
any decided step in his favor, at any time. She was an English¬ 
woman possessed of great virtues, and was a wann adherent of the 
Church of England. Her ministers, and not she, ruled England. 

§ 2. The whole course of Anne’s reign was determined by a 
romantic friendship which she had formed in early youth for an 
attendant, Sarah Jennings, a handsome, intelligent girl, a few 
years older than herself. Sarah married Colonel John Churchill, 
the son of a Dorsetshire cavalier, who was high in favor with 
Anne’s father when Duke of York, and was a most accomplished 
courtier as well as a gallant soldier. Soon after his marriage 
Churchill was made a peer, and when his patron (the duke) came 
to the throne honors and rewards were lavishly bestowed on him. 
These, however, could not secure his fidelity, and when the Prince 
of Orange landed he not only went over to him, but induced the 
Princess Anne and her husband to do the same. c 
William gave him a higher title (Earl of Marlborough), 
but acted by him as he did by so many others—employed, yet 
distrusted him—and in 1692 he suddenly deprived him of his vari¬ 
ous appointments and threw him into the Tower. The princess 
warmly espoused the cause of the husband of her friend, and Marl¬ 
borough, when at last set at liberty, busily employed himself in 
forming a “Princess’s party,” which seriously em¬ 
barrassed William’s government. This was the occa¬ 
sion of the auarrel between the two sisters.* 1 


c § 21, P . 4?a 


“ § 1, p. 487. 


Chapter V.] THE RESTORED STUARTS. 491 

Influence of Marlborough and his Wife. Successful Wars. 

§ 3. Now that Anne had become queen, Marlborough and his 
wife disposed of everything at their pleasure. Three days after 
the queen’s accession, he was decorated with the Order of the 
Garter. The next day he was made commander-in-chief of all the 
forces of the realm; and in December [1702] he was created Mar¬ 
quis of Blandf ord and Duke of Marlborough. It was Marlborough’s 
pleasure to make war, and accordingly war occupied the far 
greater part of Anne’s reign, bringing him, beside military glory 
and titles, enormous wealth. The queen’s affection for his duchess 
took an extravagant form. She regarded her as her superior, and 
was never tired of writing letters to show how honored Mrs. Mor- 
ley (the queen) felt by the kind notice of Mrs. Freeman (the 
duchess) ; such being the names that, at Anne’s pressing desire, 
they employed in their chrrespondence. 

§ 4. In the very first month of Anne’s reign, Marlborough was 
sent to Holland to concert measures “ for reducing the power of 
France within due bounds.” The arrangement was made, that 
England, Holland, Portugal, and some of the Italian princes, 
should join their forces to those of the Emperor of Germany for 
the purpose of placing his son Charles on the throne of Spain. 
Louis, however, had possession of the country, and he had a pow¬ 
erful ally in Germany in the Elector of Bavaria. Marlborough 
was declared captain-general of the English and Dutch forces, 
and taking the field at once, he drove the French from the Dutch 
frontier, and ended his first campaign with the capture of the 
strong city of Liege. He returned to England for the winter, 
received the thanks of parliament, and was created a duke, as we 
have seen. 

§ 5. It has been said of Marlborough, that he never fought a 
battle that he did not win, or besiege a town that he did not take. 
His second campaign [a.d. 1703] was in accordance with this, and 
though no great battle was fought, Bonn, Huy, Limburg, and other 
places were reduced. Under other generals, however, the allies 
were by no means so successful; and the French gained so many 
advantages in Germany that the emperor was in danger. Marl¬ 
borough. therefore, in the next year crossed the Rhine, w r as joined 
by the imperialists under Prince Eugene, and soon changed the 
face of affairs. The allies drove the Bavarians from their in¬ 
trenched camp at Schellenberg, and, following them up to Blen¬ 
heim, inflicted a terrible defeat on them and the French, on the 


492 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book IX. 

Blenheim Palace. Marlborough’s Wars on the Continent. 

13th of August, 1704. The loss was very heavy on both sides. 
Marshal Tallard, Marlborough’s opponent, was made a prisoner, 
and the Elector became a fugitive. The triumph of Marlborough 
was complete, and the reward proportionate. He had already 
received a grant of the royal manor of Woodstock, and it was 
now voted in parliament that a palace bearing the name of Blen¬ 
heim should be erected upon it for him. This was begun, but in 
after years, when he had fallen into disgrace, he had to complete 
it himself, and he expended more than £70,000 for the purpose. 

§ 6. The next year [a. n. 1705] saw Marlborough preparing to in¬ 
vade France from the side of Germany, but the emperor’s troops 
supported him badly, and the progress that the French had made 
in his absence recalled him to the Netherlands, where he retook 
Huy, one of their conquests. Henceforth his campaigns were 
confined to that country, and may be briefly noticed before speak¬ 
ing of the war elsewhere, 

§ 7. In 1706 he gained the battle of Ramillies, and the sub¬ 
mission of all Brabant was the result, with the recognition of the 
Austrian Charles as their king. All the following campaign [a.d. 
1707] was a trial of skill between Marlborough and one of the 
most famous of the French marshals, Vendome. Each was a 
master in his profession, and neither could force the other to a 
battle. In 1708 the French advanoed, and Ghent and Bruges were 
surrendered to them by the people, as they had found the allies 
hard masters, But Marlborough was soon on the spot, gained the 
battle of Oudenarde, retook Ghent, and created a terrible alarm 
in France by passing the frontier, and laying the country under 
contribution. He next captured Lille, the strongest fortress on the 
frontier, and then the proud Louis thought it time to open nego¬ 
tiations, with the view of preventing his further progress. 

§ 8. But these negotiations did not prevent another campaign 
[a.d. 1709], when the most desperate battle of the wfliole war was 
fought at Malplaquet, the victors losing more men than the van¬ 
quished in storming the French camp. Again Louis sought peace, 
but his offers were rejected; and the enormous gains that Marl¬ 
borough drew from the war were commonly, though it is to be 
hoped unjustly, assigned as the cause. In the campaign of 1710 he 
reduced several strong towns, and in 1711 he defeated Marshal Vil- 
lars at Arleux, and captured Bouchain; but this was his last triumph, 
for a change had taken place at court, and he and his wife, after 


493 


Chapter V.] THE RESTORED STUARTS. 

The Protestant Allies generally Successful. War in Spain. 

thirty years of unexampled favor and confidence, had been sup¬ 
planted in the queen’s regard. The cause will be noticed pres¬ 
ently. 

§ 9. During all these years there had been many battles by sea 
and by land, but with very various fortune. In 1702 Admiral 
Benbow was mortally wounded in the West Indies, in an attack 
on the French fleet, which failed because some of his captains de¬ 
serted him ; and Cadiz was unsuccessfully assailed, though several 
treasure-ships were destroyed at Vigo. In 1704 . an invasion of 
Spain from Portugal was baffled by the Duke of Berwick, who 
was a natural son of King James and the nephew of Marlborough. 
Gibraltar was taken by surprise by Sir George Rooke, but as, from 
the bad condition of his ships, he could not prevent the escape of 
a French fleet sent to its relief, he was dismissed the service. The 
year 1705 was one of triumph for the allies in Spain. Sir John 
Leake destroyed a French fleet near Gibraltar, and thenceforth 
what remained of their navy in the Mediterranean never ventured 
out again, but took shelter in the harbor of Toulon. The Earl of 
Peterborough, in conjunction with Sir Cloudesley Shovel, reduced 
Barcelona, and hastily traversing a large part of Spain, had the 
Austrian king everywhere proclaimed. He had nearly accom¬ 
plished the capture of Madrid, when a quarrel broke out between 
him and Charles, and the enterprise was abandoned. Peterbor¬ 
ough, who was a vain and boastful though brave man, is consid¬ 
ered to blame for this; and all his conquests were lost in the 
following year, when the allies were defeated by Berwick at 
Almanza. The English fleet, however, hung on the Spanish coast, 
and conquered Minorca in 1708. 

§ 10. Two remarkable reverses of fortune occurred in 1710. In 
the summer the imperialists were successful, and after some hard 
fighting they placed Charles in Madrid; but in less than three 
months he was driven out by Vendome, a Marlbor- ^ m 
ough’s old opponent. The English under Stanhope, 
and the imperialists under Staliremberg, were defeated within ten 
days of each other at Brihuega and Villa Viciosa, and the war in 
Spain may be said to have closed, though the people of Catalonia, 
who had warmly espoused the Austrian cause, maintained an ob¬ 
stinate struggle for four years longer. 

§ 11. Many actions were fought during the war between small 
squadrons or single ships, in which a French admiral, Du Guai 


494 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book IX. 

Privateering. Union of England and Scotland. Commercial Project. 

Trouin, originally a common sailor, was often successful; and the 
English and Dutch commerce suffered very much from the attacks 
of privateers, fitted out chiefly at Dunkirk or St. Malo. These 
sometimes sailed six or eight together, and on one occasion they 
captured the Advice, a man-of-war, in Yarmouth roads [a.d. 1711], 
though not till after two-thirds of her crew had been killed or 
wounded. Lord Duffus, her commander, was desperately wounded, 
and remained a prisoner till the end of the war. 

§ 12. The queen had, in her very first parliament, recommended 
the union of England and Scotland, but nothing was done in the 
matter for some years. At last it was accomplished on the 4th of 
March, 1707, mainly, it was said, by bribes to some of the leading 
. men in the Scottish parliament. The people of Scotland, in gene¬ 
ral, were deeply offended, saying that the Duke of Queensberry, 
the High Commissioner of Scotland, and Earl Stair, a 
n § u, p. 4S4. f-j ie independence of their country. In the 

hope of reconciling them, a sum of £400,000 was sent, under the 
pretext of making compensation for various injuries that the Scots 
had received since the Revolution, but which had never been 
thought worthy of attention before. Chief among these was the 
check given to a Scottish enterprise in foreign parts, projected by 
William Patterson, a Scot, who had founded the Bank of Eng¬ 
land. b Encouraged by his glowing promises, his coun- 
b ^ 13, p ‘ 449 ' trymen attempted to establish a great trading colony 
on the Isthmus of Darien, in 1698, which they called New Cale¬ 
donia. Its capital was called Edinburgh, and its defensive work 
was called Fort St. Andrew. 

§ 13. This project excited strenuous opposition at all points of the 
commercial world. The Dutch and English merchants forgot their 
jealousies to unite against the Darien adventurers, and the project 
was a ruinous failure. The money lost was estimated at full the 
half the wealth of the country to be colonized; and of the 3,000 
adventurers (beside women and children) who went out in three 
separate expeditions, only thirty, it is said, survived to return to 
Scotland. Famine and fever had brought this about, as the gov¬ 
ernors of the English colonies in the West Indies and other places 
had orders not to suffer them even to purchase food among them. 
The recollection of these things sunk too deep into the hearts of 
Scotchmen to be removed with money, and so high did the dis¬ 
content at the Union run, that in the next year [a.d. 1708] James 


495 


Chapter V.] THE RESTORED STUARTS. 

Court Changes. A new Favorite. Cabinet Intrigues. 

Francis Edward,* the “ Pretender,” as he was called, thinking an 
opportunity for obtaining the crown of England might ^ ^ ^ ^ 
now be offered, landed in Scotland. But he found 
his friends unprepared for rising, and he soon returned to France. 

§ 14. The Duchess of Marlborough was at the height of her 
power when, unfortunately for herself, she brought Abigail Hill, 
a poor relative, to court. She was the daughter of a bankrupt 
merchant, who was also the kinsman of Robert Harley, one of the 
secretaries of state. Harley belonged to a Puritan family, and had 
been one of the first to join the Prince of Orange on his landing ; 
but, like most other public men of his day, he had changed his 
views, and was now a Tory and High Churchman. The queen 
herself was a zealous friend of the Church, as was shown by her 
restoring the first fruits and tenths appropriated by Elizabeth, b 
and thus forming a fund that is still known as Queen 

° . § 5, p. coo. 

Anne’s Bounty; and nothing but the overpowering 
influence of the duchess prevailed on her to tolerate a set of Whig 
ministers, who were popularly regarded as its enemies. Harley, 
the secretary of state, and St. John, the secretary of war, had other 
views, and in the new waiting-woman they found the means to 
effect a palace revolution. 

§ 15. Abigail became a favorite with the queen, for her humble 
manner was a great contrast to the haughty demeanor of the 
duchess; and she was soon married to Mr. Masham, an officer of 
the household.- By her Harley, who was an enemy of Marlbo¬ 
rough, was introduced to private audiences, when he easily per¬ 
suaded Anne that the Church was in danger from the schemes of 
his Whig colleagues. Soon after this, a clerk in Harley’s office 
was detected in carrying on a correspondence with the French, and 
Harley, though not guilty, was removed; for Marlborough and 
Godolphin, the treasurer, who had heard of his secret audiences, 
refused to act with him. St. John, also of a Puritan family,—in 
fact a freethinker,—professing to be more “High Church” than 
even Harley, resigned with his friend, and the ex-ministers set 
zealously to work to make those who remained in office as unpop¬ 
ular with the country as they already were with the queen. The 
ministers themselves assisted in this by prosecuting Dr. Henry 
Sacheverell. an obscure clergyman of little moral character and 
less ability, for a sermon reflecting on the Revolution; and though 
thev procured his condemnation, they ventured to inflict so light. 


496 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book IX 

Marlborough shorn of Power. His Exile and Honors. Treaty of Utrecht. 

a punishment that it was evident their power was gone. Accord¬ 
ingly, in the summer of 1710 they were dismissed by the queen. 
Harley and St. John became her ministers, and a new par¬ 
liament was chosen, in which the Whigs were in a decided 
minority. 

§ 16. Marlborough was still too great from the fame of his vic¬ 
tories to be deprived of his command, but the new ministers took 
the ungenerous mode of disgusting him by refusing the vote of 
thanks, which he had now for several years received. They also 
sent out an expedition to the French colony of Canada, under the 
brother of Mrs. Masham, in the hope of gaining a success that 
would make his triumphs of less account, and when this failed 
from the incapacity of their untried general, they brought un¬ 
founded charges of corruption against the duke. This last scheme 
answered their purpose. Marlborough defended himself before 
his peers with sense and spirit, but finding that he spoke to preju¬ 
diced ears, he resigned all his employments in 1711, and with his 
duchess went abroad, where he remained as long as the queen 
lived. He was treated almost as a sovereign by the allies with 
4 491 w ^ om ac t e( l, a w ho soon found that without 

§ 4, p. they had no hope of contending successfully 

with France. 

§ 17. This was also the view that the ministers took, and there¬ 
fore the Duke of Ormond, b the new commander, was 

b ^ 17, p. 475. 

ordered to avoid fighting, whilst Prince Eugene, left 
to his own resources, was defeated at Denain, and town after town 
acquired by Marlborough fell again into the hands of the French. 
Whilst this was going on, conferences for peace were opened in 
spite of the remonstrances of the allies, who considered themselves 
betrayed, and early in July, 1713, the treaty of Utrecht was con¬ 
cluded. By it Louis gained all he had contended for, on a mere 
promise not to interfere with the Protestant succession in England, 
and the cession of Nova Scotia to England. His grandson Philip 
was acknowledged king of Spain, but was obliged to allow Gib¬ 
raltar and Minorca to remain with their captors. c 

c g 9 p. 493. A 

These acquisitions, and a shameful contract to supply 
some of the Spanish colonies with negro slaves, were the reward 
of almost twelve years’ war, which had added £38,000,000 
($190,000,000) to the national debt, and had called many new 
taxes (as the stamp duty on newspapers) into existence. 


497 


Chapter V.] THE RESTORED STUARTS. 

Restoration of Territories. Court Quarrels. Death of Queen Anne. 

§ 18. From the peace of Utrecht dates the political importance 
of the colonies of European States. Up to this time, the Spaniards, 
English, French, and Dutch, had taken little account of them 
except for mere purposes of trade, but now they had become suffi¬ 
ciently numerous to be valued for the sake of dominion. Accord¬ 
ingly, Hudson’s Bay and Newfoundland, which the French had 
taken, were restored, and Nova Scotia, which the English had con¬ 
quered, was retained, and a town named Annapolis Royal, in hon¬ 
or of the queen, was founded in commemoration of the cession. 

§ 19. But long before the peace was concluded Harley and St. 
John (now become respectively Earl of Oxford and Viscount 
Bolingbroke) were at variance. Oxford (Harley) treated the favor¬ 
ite a as if she was still his poor relation, whilst Boling- a g 15 p 495 
broke showed her unbounded deference. The latter, 
therefore, was taken into the queen’s confidence, Oxford was 
displaced, and an attempt to set aside the Act of b g 6 p 488 
Settlement b would probably have been made had not 
the queen fell ill just at that time. She had been very much 
agitated by stormy scenes at court, and on the 30th of July, 1714, 
she was prostrated by apoplexy. Whilst hardly conscious of what 
she did, she was prevailed on to commit the care of the govern¬ 
ment to the Duke of Shrewsbury, a Whig, and died the very next 
day, the 1st of August, 1714. 

§ 20. So passed away Anne Stuart, the last member of her un¬ 
fortunate family who sat on the British throne, though her succes¬ 
sor possessed, in a remote degree, a little of the Stuart blood. She 
was a woman of middle height, plump, and well-proportioned. 
Her hair was dark brown; her complexion ruddy; her voice clear 
and melodious; and her presence engaging. She possessed good 
mental abilities, but they were not much cultivated by study. She 
■was a pattern of conjugal affection and fidelity. Her tastes were 
• refined, and her court was virtuous. No subject suffered for trea¬ 
son during her reign, and no one was ever suspected of conspiring 
against her life or even her rule. She died childless at the age of 
forty-nine years, and in the twelfth of her reign. She bore six 
children, but they all died young. Even to this day she justly 
bears the title of “ Good Queen Anne.” 

§ 21. An act had been passed in the year 1705 which provided 
that certain great officers should administer the government in 
case the next Protestant successor should not be in the realm at the 


498 


f 

HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book IX. 

Another Foreigner on the Throne. Eeligious Aspect of England. 

time of the queen’s death. Shrewsbury and his party now held 
these posts, and accordingly they at once proclaimed that the 
crown had devolved on George, Elector-of Hanover, and great 
grandson of James the First. Bolingbroke did not offer any op¬ 
position, but quietly remained in office, though he could hardly 
hope to be acceptable to the new king. 


CHAPTER VI. 

SOCIETY DUBING THE LATEB EXILE OF THE STUABTS [A.D. 1680 TO 

1714]. 

§ 1. Little need be said here concerning the religious aspect of 
society in England from the Restoration to the close of Queen 
Arm p.’s reign. Theology gave tone and edge to politics, and all 
the civil and military transactions of that period partook largely 
of religious sectarian hues. Theological questions were forced 
upon the attention at every turn. We have seen Protestantism, 
untrammelled by hierarchies, assuming many shapes, under the in¬ 
fluence of free thought and expression; and all through the seven¬ 
teenth century it was, in various forms, hotly contesting for supre¬ 
macy with the Romish and Anglican churches. We have seen it 
completely victorious in the Church and State when the Protestant 
succession to the throne of England was secured by constitutional 
law. a There was persecution when there was power 
» § 6, p. 488. tQ persecute? but W as w ithout that sanguinary sava- 
gism which prevailed during the sixteenth century. There was 
bitterness and ostracism, but no one suffered death judicially 
during the seventeenth century as a heretic in religious belief. It 
was offences against the State, and not the Church, that called 
into use the axe and the gibbet. During that century there were 
immense strides toward religious freedom, and the attainment of a 
purer Christianity. While the State enforced a law, made in 1678, 
and known as the Test Act, which required all officers under 
government, civil and military, to receive the sacrament according 
to the forms of the Church of England, and to take the oaths 
against the doctrine of transubstantiation held by the Roman 
Catholics—a law repealed so late as 1828—a Toleration Act to 



499 


Chapter VI.] THE RESTORED STUARTS. 

Toleration in Religion. Improvement in Government and Laws. 

relieve Protestant Dissenters or Nonconformists a from the Church 
of England was passed in 1689. It was very limited, a § ^ p 
it is true. It only exempted persons who took the 
new oath of allegiance and supremacy, and made a declaration 
against Popery, from the penalties incurred by absenting them¬ 
selves from church and holding unlawful conventicles; and it 
allowed the Quakers to substitute an affirmation for an oath. But 
it did not relax the rigor of the Test Act. 

§ 2. In government and laws there was also great advancement 
during the seventeenth century in the direction of popular liberty 
and popular sovereignty. We have seen the government recede 
from the exalted position of a republic and become the instrument 
of misrule for weak and profligate princes of the Stuart line in the 
form of a corrupt and corrupting monarchy, which finally became 
unbearable and ended in revolution. b Then came a b ^ ^ p 477 
purer monarchy, in constitutional form, with the 
rights of the people defined and guaranteed by charter instead of 
the brittle promises of monarchs. This was a great and important 
change. It was a monarchy actually limited by law, and the 
right of hereditary succession was not only unrecognized, but on 
the death of Queen Anne the line was absolutely broken, though a 
member of the Stuart family, in a remote degree, as- # §21> p 497 
cended the throne.® This new state of things swept 
away the whole brood of mischiefs having their source in 

“ The right divine of kings to govern wrong.” 

§ 3. The Declaration made to the Prince of Orange, on his ac¬ 
cession to the throne, d by the parliament, defining the d § ^ p 479 
rights and liberties of the subject, and to which the 
new monarch acceded,was an immense advance toward the full free¬ 
dom of the people, and has ever been regarded as the great bul¬ 
wark of the British Constitution. It declared (1) that the king 
was only the executor of the laws under parliament; (2) that a 
Court of High Commission e for ecclesiastical causes e § ^ p 3g4 
was illegal; (3) that the king had no right to levy 
money without the consent of parliament; (4) that the subject had 
a right to petition his sovereign; (5) that it was illegal to raise or 
keep a standing army in time of peace without the consent of 
parliament; (6) that Protestant subjects might keep arms for 
their defence; (7). that the election of members of parliament 
should be free ; (8) that the freedom of speech and debate in par- 


500 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 


[Book IX. 


Declaration of Rights. Character of the Government. 

liament ought not to be questioned elsewhere ; (9) that excessive 
bail ought not to be required, excessive fines imposed, nor exces¬ 
sive punishments inflicted; (10) that jurors should be duly impan- 
nelled and returned, and that those who were to pass upon high 
treason should be freeholders; (11) that all grants and promises 
of fines and forfeitures of particular persons before conviction 
were illegal and void ; and (12) that for the redress of all griev¬ 
ances, and for the amending and strengthening the laws, parlia¬ 
ments ought to be held frequently. The form of the government 
was very little altered, but the spirit was radically changed. That 
change, begun at the Revolution, may be considered completed by 
the accession of the House of Brunswick in the person of George 
the First, Anne’s successor. 

§ 4. Henceforth the political history of the country was the 
record of what the majority in parliament would or would not 
have done. The ministers, though nominally the servants of the 
crown, could never afterward struggle successfully against that 
majority, and when its views were opposed to theirs, they were and 
are obliged to quit their office. To meet this altered state of 
things, one man among them was selected as the premier, or head 
of the administration, to whom all the rest were bound to give their 
support whilst they remained in office, which had not been the 
case under the earlier kings. Those earlier sovereigns were, in 
fact, their own chief ministers, and they called men to their aid 
without much care as to whether they agreed among themselves or 
were acceptable to their other “ advisers.” The Revolution put an 
end to this personal government, and the country has ever since 
had men to administer its affairs who might be called to tl*e strict¬ 
est account for their conduct without the suspicion of disloyalty 
to the sovereign. So the Anglo-American colonies in the last 
century, while expressing the most zealous loyalty to the king, 
openly and most vehemently, in their petitions, addresses, and 
proclamations, condemned his ministers as oppressors. It was not 
until they had declared themselves independent of Great Britain 
that they denounced the monarch as “a tyrant unfit to be the 
ruler of a free people.” 

§ 5. The national industry flourished during the period between 
the Restoration [1660] and the Revolution [1688], it having received 
a powerful impulse during the commonwealth [1649 to 1660]. 
Commerce was much extended. In the year 1668 the East India 


501 


Chapter VI.] THE RESTORED STUARTS. 

Tea first used in England. Increasing Wealth. Resources. Coinage. 

Company a alone employed about forty vessels in trade with the 
oriental nations ; and it was at the period of the Res- a g ^ ^ 
toration b that tea was first brought into England b§14 ’ p 443 
from China by vessels of that corporation. The quaint 
Pepys, in his diary, under date of 1661, records:—“I sent for a 
cup of tea (a Chinese drink), of which I had never drunk before.” 
It was then sold in a liquid state. It was not until after the 
Revolution that the use of tea in England became at all general. 
Within ten years [1668-1678] the mercantile shipping of the king¬ 
dom was doubled. So, too, was the tonnage and guns of the royal 
navy. The wealth of the realm was enormous, and was rapidly 
increasing. At the time of the Revolution land was worth three 
times what it was at the beginning of that century. 

§ 6 . The Revolution seriously interfered with the foreign trade 
of England, but it gave a new impulse to several branches of 
domestic industry, and so the wealth of the realm was steadily 
augmented. Yet at the peace of Ryswick 0 it was c § 14? p 485 . 
evident that the resources of the country had been 
so terribly drawn upon that it was like a man staggering with the 
weakness of disease. But with peace came returning strength. It 
was the dawn of a new era of prosperity for England in her agri¬ 
cultural, commercial, and manufacturing operations. In this 
prosperity the Bank of England, founded by Pater- d ^ ^ p 494 
son, d bore a conspicuous part in affording the means 
for a sound and uniform circulating currency for the whole realm. 
By acts at the close of the century the government called in all 
silver coin of its issue, which was replaced by another currency of 
the full standard weight. The new coins went out of the mint 
[a.d. 1697] the finest and most beautiful of any in all Europe. The 
new gold coin, called the guinea (made of gold from the coast of 
Guinea, in Africa), was first issued in 1662. The figure of Britan¬ 
nia (still retained) sitting on a globe, holding in her right hand an 
olive branch, and in her left a spear and shield, first appeared on 
the copper coins of Charles the Second. 

§ 7. Holland was the principal purchaser of English goods, 
especially after the accession of William and Mary [a.d. 1689]; 
and the plantation trade, as the traffic with the Anglo-American 
colonics was called, was at that period rising into much import¬ 
ance. It might have been a source of vast wealth to England had 
not unwise navigation laws, which interfered with the freedom of 


502 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book IX. 

Commerce. Navy. Immigrants. Continental Luxuries Introduced. 

trade, restricted the development of the resources of the New 
World. At the beginning of Queen Anne’s reign, about 3,300 
vessels, carrying nearly 6,000 guns for self-protection, and man¬ 
ned by 27,000 seamen, were engaged in the merchant sendee of 
England; and the royal navy then consisted of about 200 vessels, 
manned by 45,000 men. Ship-building was encouraged and car¬ 
ried to great perfection, and navigation received the special atten¬ 
tion of the government, for already these words of Waller had 
deep significance:— 

“ Others may use the ocean as their road, 

Only the English make it their abode; 

Whose ready sails with every wind can fly, 

And make a covenant with the inconstant sky; 

Our oaks secure as if they there took root, 

We tread on billows with a steady foot.” 

It was in the year 1700 that the first light-house (the Eddystone) 
blazed out its beneficent light on the British coast. 

§ 8. The revocation of the Edict of Nantes a by Louis the 

Fourteenth ri6851 compelled thousands of French 

* ’ ’ ‘ Protestant artisans to take refuge in England. These 
introduced new industrial pursuits, to the great injury of France, 
for they produced fabrics which had hitherto been imported from 
across the Channel. The manufacture of silk, fine linen, lace, 
calico in imitation of the work of the looms of India, paper, 
and plate-glass was then introduced into England, and so added 
to the national wealth. While the wars of Queen Anne again 
interfered with foreign commerce, and greatly increased the bur¬ 
dens of taxation, the internal trade and manufacture of the king¬ 
dom were so stimulated that the riches of the realm were largely 
increased. 

§ 9. Charles the Second introduced many continental elegancies 
into England, and the furniture and interior decorations of houses 
rose in costliness and show after the Restoration. Turkey carpets 

were yet seldom used for floors, 1 * but the walls were 
b § 14, p 449. . 

soon hung with the more costly Gobelin tapestries, 
from the factory in France, established 1677. So early as 1660 
oil-cloths began to be used, and the magnificent carved and gilt 
furniture of France was soon brought into England in large quan¬ 
tities. 

§ 10. The gaudy French costume took the place, among the 


503 


Chaptek VI.] THE RESTORED STUARTS. 

Fashions. 

nobility and gentry, on the accession of Charles, of the more sober 
dress, even of the royalists,* 1 in the time of the Com¬ 
monwealth. The dress of a beau consisted of a short- a ^ 17, p ' 451 ‘ 
waisted doublet and petticoat breeches; the lining, being lower 
than the breeches, was tied above the knees. The breeches were 
ornamented with ribbons up to the pocket, and half their breadth 
upon the thigh. The waistband was set about with ribbons, and 
the shirt hung out over them in folds. The hat was high-crowned, 
ornamented with a plume of feathers. Beneath the knee hung 
long, drooping lace ruffles. A rich falling collar of lace, with a 
cloak hung carelessly over the shoulders, and high-heeled shoes, 
tied with broad ribbons, completed the costume. This was modi¬ 
fied towards the close of Charles’s reign, when straight square 
coats, with waistcoats of equal length, and both reaching to the 
knee, were introduced. The breeches were full, and fastened 
below the knee with gay ribbons, but sometimes covered by long 
stockings. A long neckcloth of Flanders lace fell from the throat. 
Immense curled periwigs covered the head ; the shoes were high, 
and tied with broad ribbons, and the hands were covered with 
fringed gloves. This was the fashion of “people of quality,” and 
was very little changed until in Queen Anne’s reign. The Puri¬ 
tans of both sexes, meanwhile, dressed with conspicuous plain¬ 
ness, and their general style has been preserved until our day in 
the dress of the more strict Friends, or Quakers. 

§ 11. The feminine costume during the time of Charles and 
James was more showy and extravagant. Cloaks of the richest 
material, feathers, ribbons, lace, and jewelry abounded. The 
plainest dress was a white laced waistcoat and crimson silk or 
satin petticoat. The ladies painted and patched b ^ ^ ^ 

their faces, b and wore great periwigs in imitation of 
the masculine fashion. Upon these were little cocked hats with 
feathers; and it was a fashionable amusement for ladies, when 
they met, to try on each other’s hats. It was also fashionable for 
the gentlemen to comb their periwigs in public. With the acces¬ 
sion of William and Mary came Dutch modifications. The sto¬ 
macher was more formally laced, and the short sleeves terminated 
in large cuffs above the elbows. The petticoat was trimmed with 
rows of flounces and many furbelows ; and the gown was looped 
up to show them, but extended in a long train behind. Head¬ 
dresses were^made very high, and the hair was powdered and dis- 


504 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book IX. 

Changes in Fashions. Licentiousness of the Stuart Court and the Nobility. 

posed in wavy curls, one above the other. Fans were skilfully 
used by the ladies, and muffs and perfumed gloves were worn by 
both sexes. These fashions continued late into Queen Anne’s 
reign. But in 1711 a radical change appeared. The high head¬ 
dress was laid aside, and in its place was a low hat with a feather 
laid on the rim. The hoop was then introduced; and very soon 
the petticoats were so expanded by it that a fine lady would ac¬ 
cord in appearance with the Dutch governor described by Irving 
as being “ five feet six inches in height, and six feet five inches in 
breadth.” 

§ 12. The details given by cotemporary writers of the licen¬ 
tiousness of the court and nobility during the reigns of the last 
Stuarts are most shocking. Happily, the immorality, extrava¬ 
gance, and frivolity of those so-called higher circles did not per¬ 
vade the great mass of the English people, for the Puritan element 
was a most potential restraint upon the vices which, flowing over 
from the continent, threatened to overwhelm England in social 
ruin. The large towns were corrupted, but the country remained 
comparatively pure. While London was reeking with abomina¬ 
tions—whilst the theatre and court mummeries were absolute 
schools of wantonness, and gluttony, and drunkenness, and liber¬ 
tinism distinguished “society” in the metropolis—the people 
throughout the country were content to he amused by the plays 
at country fairs, and the jollity found at May-poles, sheep-shear¬ 
ings, and harvest-homes. The pleasant beverages of tea, coffee, 
and chocolate soon took the place of heavier drink at table, and 
feasts and merry-makings were occasions of wholesome enjoy¬ 
ment. There had become a wide-spread taste for music, never 
seen since in England; and all through the country musical par¬ 
ties were common, where the violin, flute, and spinnet were the 
favorite instruments. Field-sports were common, and holidays 
2 go were numerous. Serfdom a had disappeared, but or- 

§ 26, p. 9~. g an - ze( ^ p aU p er j snij so to speak, had taken its place. 
The poor, instead of being cared for by masters, were cared for 
by parishes. Among the laboring classes there was great poverty, 
ignorance, and wretchedness, especially in the towns, for wages 
were low and the necessaries of life were high. Eight pence a 
day, with food, was the wages of a common laborer. More skilled 
agriculturists received ten pence. That was in the time of Charles; 
but in the reign of James wages were reduced by law, nearly thirty 


505 


Chapter VI.] THE RESTORED STUARTS. 

Wages. Literature and Fine Arts. Character of the Latter. 

per cent. Artisans and women were paid in about the proportion 
we have noticed, at an earlier period. a While the ^ 21 p 452 
nobility and the middling classes of England at this 
time were increasing in wealth and domestic comforts, the condi¬ 
tion of the poor was wretched. 

§ 13. Literature and the fine arts fluctuated during the period 
we are considering. No great literary work appeared.in England 
during twenty years preceding the Restoration. That event gave 
birth to a brood of obsequious writers, who, influenced by the tone 
of the court, put forth a flood of vicious literature. Adulation of 
royalty was the staple sentiment of ballad, madrigal, and drama. 
Only the great Milton, the young republican poet, stood conspicu¬ 
ously aloof from the vile contagion, and was scowled upon by the 
court. Others were then working upon the foundations of their 
future eminence, like John Dry den and Gilbert Burnet; and 
there were some whose lustre had been acknowledged during the 
Commonwealth, like Richard Baxter and Dr. Leighton. The 
names of John Bunyan, Izaac Walton, and Sir William Temple 
rise before us. After the Revolution came a galaxy of luminaries 
in literature which shed amazing lustre upon the times of William, 
and Anne, and George. Among those of greater magnitude were 
Dryden, Burnet, Locke, De Foe, Prior, Addison, Swift, and Pope. 
These men and their less conspicuous cotemporaries constructed, 
upon the earlier foundations laid by Shakespeare and his literary 
friends, the noble superstructure of English literature which has 
never been surpassed in solidity and beauty. 

§ 14. The fine arts felt the influence of the vicious taste of Louis 
the Fourteenth after the accession of Charles, his weak imitator. 
In painting, when it was made “ the handmaid of architecture,” 
there was a jumble of history, mythology, and allegory. Foreign 
artists were chiefly employed in these works. In portraiture, Sir 
Peter Lely was the great light; but he strained the truth in the 
introduction of the voluptuous style of the French in pose and 
costume. Sculpture was almost wholly confined to decoration, 
though Gibbons, an English artist, produced a fine statue of Charles 
the Second. In architecture Sir Christopher Wren was most con¬ 
spicuous, and his grand works are numerous in England. In 
painting, after the Revolution, Sir Godfrey Kneller disputed with 
Lely the throne of supreme excellence until the reign of George 
the First. It was Kneller’s misfortune to have his avarice obscure 
22 


506 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book IX. 

Taste for Music. The Sciences Neglected. Books on Science. 

his talents, and he made his great gift wholly subservient to his 
greed for money. In sculpture there was nothing worth mention¬ 
ing, and it is difficult to find the name of a sculptor of note during 
the reign of William and Mary. Music too was much neglected 
for a while after the Revolution; but on the introduction of the 
Italian opera in London, in 1701, a taste for such music was ra¬ 
pidly diffused. Under the management of the eminent Handel it 
attained great popularity; and the grandeur of music was first dis¬ 
played by that eminent artist in the form of the Oratorio of Esther , 
in 1720. Music in public worship had been constantly improving, 
and in the time of Queen Anne had reached great perfection. 

§ 15. The sciences were but little known in England, while 
their devotees on the Continent, by investigation, experiment, 
and.discovery were arriving at wonderful and beneficent results. 
Trigonometry had been introduced from Arabia by the cru¬ 
saders. 11 Decimal fractions sfnd algebra had increased 
»§ 15, p. ill. tte f or computation so early as (he begin¬ 

ning of the thirteenth century. Early in the sixteenth century, Co¬ 
pernicus had revealed the now accepted theory of the universe. 
Columbus had noticed the variations of the magnetic needle; the 
theory of the inclined plane and pulley in mechanics had been ex¬ 
plained, and the study of optics had given to the eye the marvel¬ 
lous aid of 1 lie lens. So early as 1315 dissection had been per¬ 
formed, and anatomy made a profound study as a science. Medi¬ 
cine, also, had assumed the form of a science. Natural philoso¬ 
phy had engaged the attention of thousands of delighted students, 
and chemistry had emerged from the shadows of alchemy. All 
this had occurred while England was almost ignorant of, or at 
least indifferent to, the great intellectual movements on the Conti¬ 
nent. 

§ 16. The physical sciences first found devotees in England at 
the close of the fifteenth century. Linacre founded medical 
lectureships at Oxford and Cambridge in the early part of the 
sixteenth century, and was the first president of the Royal College 
of Physicians, established by Henry the Eighth in 1518. In the 
latter half of that century some works on zoology and botany 
were published, among which was Turner’s English Herbal At 
the head of modern sciences and navigation, at that time, stood 
Dr. William Gilbert, who published a treatise entitled De Mag-. 
nete , in the year 1600. Some arithmetics and astronomical trea- 


507 


Chapter YI.J THE RESTORED STUARTS. 

Taste for Science Introduced. Tha Physical Sciences. 

tises were also issued late in the reign of Elizabeth ; and the first 
English translation of Euclid was put forth in 1573. The bold 
speculations of Bacon, a and the brilliant invention a ^ 2g p 455 
of logarithms by Napier, ushered into England a 
knowledge of and taste for the studies of the continental philoso¬ 
phers of the time, who had revolutionized the entire structure of 
the mathematical and physical sciences. 

§ 17. Astronomy now began to receive much attention in Eng¬ 
land. The most remarkable of its masters was Samuel Horrocks, 
who anticipated Newton in several things, and who died at the 
age of only twenty-two years, in 1641. In the physical sciences 
we find Harvey credited for the discovery of the circulation of 
the blood, in 1619, though Sir John Davies, in a poem published 
in Queen Elizabeth’s time, evidently alluded to it as a known 
fact. But while real truths were found, there were many crude 
notions and mischievous errors afloat under the name of science, 
even when the Royal Society was established, in 1662. At about 
that time the Marquis of Worcester invented and set in motion a 
steam-engine for raising water, in which an old cannon was the 
boiler. 

§ 18. In the latter part of the seventeenth century Robert Boyle 
stood at the head of the cultivators of experimental science, with 
Robert Hooke as a worthy cotemporary. But the greatest dis¬ 
coverer and most brilliant investigator of that age was Sir Isaac 
Newton, who detected the laws of gravitation and other occult 
mysteries of nature, and dispelled so much of the darkness that 
surrounded the truth in science, that the poet seems justified in 
saying:— 

“God said. Let Newton live, and there was light.” 

His great treatise on Optics first appeared in 1704, and aston¬ 
ished and delighted the groping philosophers with new beams of 
knowledge; and his Prindpia gave new direction to scientific 
speculation. Henceforth the Royal Observatory, which Charles the 
Second established at Greenwich, was a scene of great triumphs 
in astronomical observation. Newton adorned the reigns of Wil¬ 
liam, Anne, and George the First, and had for his cotemporaries 
in the exploration of the heavens Gregory, Flamstead, and Hal¬ 
ley, and Hadley the inventor of the quadrant. There were lesser 
lights that increased in magnitude afterward. And so it was that 
at the close of Queen Anne’s reign and late into that of her 


508 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 


[Book IX. 

Reigns of the Tudgrs and Stuarts. Character of the Rulers. 

successor, England could boast of a galaxy of men of science 
equal to any that ever shone upon the earth. 

§ 19. The reigns of the Tudors and the Stuarts, from 1485 
to 1714, form, in reality, but one subject for history, as the tyranny 
of the first was the great and main cause of the errors and calami¬ 
ties of the second. Henry the Seventh and Henry the Eighth were 
both able men, though cruel and unscrupulous; and Edward the 
Sixth, Mary, and Elizabeth had ministers who gave a distinct 
character to each reign. But in all, and through all, an utter 
intolerance of the least freedom of opinion, and extreme harsh¬ 
ness in dealing with offenders of every grade, are ever to be per¬ 
ceived. A portion of the nation, however, always existed that 
bore this despotism with impatience. This party grew stronger 
and stronger as the Tudor rule approached its close; and there 
came but a weak monarch to cope with it. 

§ 20. James, son of Mary Queen of Scots, 11 and the first Stuart 
king of England, had led a life of privation and dan- 
« § 13, p. 358. - R s co tland, and, when freed from this by his 
accession to the English throne, he construed the deference that for 
the first time in his life he met with into a tacit acknowledgment 
that he was really above all laws and might do just what he pleased. 
The parliament, however, had no longer the dread of the Tudors 
before their eyes, and they repaid themselves for their former forced 
subserviency by exhibiting a marked independence, which was par¬ 
ticularly offensive to a feeble but boastful ruler, who sincerely be¬ 
lieved that he reigned by divine right, and that kings could do no 
wrong. He bequeathed the quarrel to his successor, who had too 
much of his father’s “high prerogative” ideas to give way wisely; 
and the temporary overthrow of both Church and State was the 
consequence. An interregnum followed, and a Commonwealth 
appeared as a triumph of popular liberty; but its rale, in some re¬ 
spects, was in reality greater tyranny than that it had suppressed. 
It had its main strength in the courage and abilities of Oliver 
Cromwell, and when he died it fell as a matter of course. 

§ 21. Restored rulers have seldom shown themselves equal to 
their difficult position, with old friends to reward and old oppo- ' 
nents to conciliate; and Charles the Second and James the Second 
b 21 rs werc n0 exce Pti° ns to the rule. The Revolution of 

§ 21 , p. i.c jggg b established a new line of succession to the 
throne, and as the precaution was then taken, which had been 


509 


Chapter VI. J THE RESTORED STUARTS. 

Important events in English History. 

neglected at tlie Restoration, of making a formal enumeration 
and demand of the ancient rights and liberties of a § 3 p 499 
the people, to which William and Mary solemnly as¬ 
sented, 3 the present limited constitutional monarchy of England 
was at last firmly established. 

§ 22. To the time of the Tudors belongs the rapid growth of 
England’s world-wide commerce and powerful navy, though each 
had been greater in earlier times than is commonly supposed. 
America was discovered in the reign of Henry the b § p g67 
Seventh, b and both he and his son were patrons of r g 4 p 329 
maritime adventure. Under Edward 0 and Mary, d d § 4 ’ p> m 
Russia was first approached »by sea ; and Elizabeth’s 
reign saw the beginning of English trading with the East, the 
germ of the present empire of India, e and of coloni- e g 8 p 447 
zation in America, which gave birth to the Great 
Rep.ublic of the West. The first district settled still beai-s the name 
of Virginia, in honor of the Virgin Queen, and its first capital, 
Jamestown, was a memorial of her successor, King James. The 
hardy enterprise that led to these undertakings also showed itself 
in frequent attacks on the Spanish possessions in the West Indies, 
which would now be called piratical, as they were commenced 
whilst the two countries were professedly at peace; but the people 
of their own time thought Hawkins, Drake, Frobisher, Raleigh, 
Cavendish, and other bold adventurers fully justified in anything 
that they might do, so long as the hated and dreaded f § ^ p m 
Philip of Spain f was weakened thereby. 

§ 23. The dissensions and civil war under the early Stuarts 
caused England to become weak abroad as well as miserable at 
home. Her influence was revived by Cromwell, e but g p m 
Charles the Second was the mere tool of France. 

William the Thud may be regarded as the deviser of standing 
armies and the national debt, h both of them being h § ^ p ^ 
devoted to the great object of his life, the curbing 
of the power of Louis the Fourteenth, who not only desired to 
subjugate Holland, but made strenuous attempts to restore James 
the Second. Under Anne, James’s daughter, the same idea of es¬ 
tablishing what was called “ the balance of power ” led to many 
yearn of warfare, in which, as we have seen, the Duke of Marl¬ 
borough gained many great victories, but with no very satisfac¬ 
tory results. 


BOOK X. 


THE HOUSE OF BRUNSWICK 

FROM A.D. 1714 TO THE PRESENT TIME. 


CHAPTER I. 


reign of George the First. [a.d. 1714 to 1727.] 

§ 1. George, Elector of Hanover, was fifty-four years of age 
when lie was called to the British throne. His father was Emest- 
Augustus, Duke of Brunswick-Lunenburg, and Elector of Hano¬ 
ver. His mother was Sophia, youngest child of Elizabeth, Queen 
of Bohemia and daughter of James the First. He had once been a 
suitor for the hand of the Princess Anne, but being refused he mar¬ 
ried his cousin Sophia, a German princess, whom he caused to be 
imprisoned in a fortress for more than thirty years upon an un¬ 
doubtedly false charge of criminal conduct. He was chosen by 
the English because they had great reverence for what are called 
hereditary rights; and to perpetuate these, and at the same time 
secure a Protestant succession, according to law, it was necessary 
to select a monarch from that branch of the family of James. 

§ 2. George was the first sovereign of the Guelph family, or, as 
it is usually called, the House of Brunswick. He came to Eng¬ 
land, called in by the Whigs, and, as he was of a harsh nature, ' 

he never tried to conciliate the other party. Boling- 
» § 19, p. 497. L J ° 

" § 17, p. 496. 


’ § 1, p. 490. 


broke a and Ormond, b being repulsed from his pre¬ 
sence, withdrew to France and joined the Chevalier, 6 
when an insurrection was determined on, to which 
Louis the Fourteenth promised ample support. Oxford was im¬ 
peached and thrown into the Tower for his share in concluding 
o 17 49 6 th e treaty of Utrecht ; d but as all that he had done 

§ 17, p. 496. k a( j | 3 een formally ratified by parliament, it was 
found impossible to convict him, and he was at last set at liberty 
[a.d. 1717], after a mere formal trial. 



Chapter I.] THE HOUSE OF BRUNSWICK 511 

Reign of George the First. Corrupt Public Men. Jacobite Insurrection. 

§ 3. For the first seven years of the king’s reign, Viscount 
Townslicnd, Lord Stanhope, and Sir Robert Walpole were his 
chief ministers, sometimes acting in concert, and sometimes op¬ 
posed to each other; for the parliamentary system was not yet 
fully established. In 1721 Walpole obtained exclusive power, 
and maintained it for twenty* years. He had been secretary for 
war in Queen Anne’s time, and had been expelled the House of 
Commons and committed to the Tower on well-grounded charges 
of corruption. He avowed it as his belief that every man has his 
price, and his long continuance in office was clearljrthe result of 
his acting on this maxim. So corrupt did public men become in 
his time that even the judges were suspected, and Lord Chancel¬ 
lor Macclesfield was convicted of embezzlement, fined £30,000, 
and expelled from office. Yet Walpole maintained the country 
in peace for a longer time than had ever elapsed before, and he 
was at last driven into retirement by men who certainly were not 
more honest than himself. 

§ 4. The king’s evident intention to treat all but Whigs as his 
enemies hastened the insurrection alluded to. It broke out in 
Scotland in September, 1715, when the Earl of Mar (who had 
been dismissed from his post of secretary, though willing to act 
under the new sovereign) set up the standard of James the Eighth 
of Scotland (the Chevalier or Pretender), and was joined by 
several other nobles. The English Jacobites took up arms imme¬ 
diately afterward, the principal persons among them being the 
Earl of Derwentwater, who was a grandson of James the Second, 
and Mr. Foster, a Northumbrian gentleman of large property and 
a member of parliament. Each party collected considerable forces, 
but there seemed to be no military talent among the leaders, and 
they never could agree on any combined movement. Mar and his 
forces had an indecisive action at Sheriffmuir, near Dunblane, with 
the royal troops under the Duke of Argyle, and the Chevalier 
joined them soon after. He brought them no help, for his great 
patron, Louis the Fourteenth, died just a week before Mar appeared 
in arms, and the regent Duke of Orleans was his enemy. ' He 
announced his intention of being crowned at Scone, the ancient 
seat of Scottish royalty;» but the ceremony never a § ^ p m 
took place, and in little more than a month he 
was back again in France, Mar accompanying him, anl passing the 
remainder of his life in exile. 


512 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book X. 

The Insurgents Defeated. Political Management. Foreign Invasion Threatened. 

§ 5. Some of the Scots had joined the English insurgents, and 
they were less fortunate. After wandering awhile among the 
Cheviot Hills, Foster, who, without any military knowledge, had 
assumed the post of general, prevailed on the whole body to march 
southward. They soon reached Lancashire, and came to a halt 
at Preston, where they were assailed by troops under Willes and 
Carpenter, two of Marlborough’s old officers, and obliged to 
surrender at discretion on the same day that the battle of Sheriff- 
muir was fought. The common men were tried in the country. 
Many of them were hanged, and the rest shipped off to the colo¬ 
nies, as Monmouth’s followers had been thirty years before; but the 
leaders were brought to London, and several of them executed. 
Foster escaped from Newgate by bribing the keeper, and Mackin¬ 
tosh, a sturdy Highlander* broke out by force; but the Earls of 
Derwentwater and Nithsdale, Viscount Kenmuir, Lords Balmerino, 
Naime, and Widdrington, were tried and condemned to death, 
Lord Cowper, an eminent Whig, treating them with a harshness 
that recalled Judge Jeffreys to the minds of some of the audience. 
Derwentwater and Kenmuir were executed; but Nithsdale, also 
sentenced to death, made his escape from the Tower in his wife’s 
clothes; and Balmerino, Naime, and Widdrington were released 
after a long imprisonment, their titles and their property being 
forfeited. 

§ 6. The Chevalier had many well-wishers beside those that had 
appeared in arms, and it was feared that, if an election took place, 
they would obtain a majority in the next parliament, which accord¬ 
ing to law should be chosen in 1717. But the Whigs made use of 
their present power and passed the Septennial Act, which not 
only provided for making the term of each parliament seven 
years, but deferred the election for six years. That act was passed 
on the 26th of April, 1716. 

§ 7. The rebellion was scarcely suppressed, when two foreign 
powers concerted a scheme for a much more formidable invasion. 
These were Sweden and Spain, and the matter was only one of 
marfy wars into which England was drawn through her kings 
being also electors of Hanover, and thinking far more of the inter¬ 
ests of the small country than of the great one. The King of 
Sweden (Charles the Twelfth) was a warlike prince, who was 
styled the “Alexander,” and also the “Madman” of the North, 
and who in the earlier years of his reign had made great conquests 


513 


Chapter I.] THE HOUSE OF BRUNSWICK. 

Jacobite Scheme against England, in Spain, Defeated. 

from the Danes and the Russians, but was at last defeated bj- 
Peter the Great, and passed some years in exile in Turkey. When 
he returned, he found that some of his acquisitions had been re¬ 
taken by the Danes, and sold by them to the new king of England. 
He threatened war, when an English fleet appeared in the Baltic, 
with which he was quite unable to cope; but his hatred remained 
undiminished, and he readily entered into a scheme devised by 
Cardinal Alberoni, the prime minister of Spain, for the restoration 
of the Stuarts. 

§ 8. On Alberoni’s invitation the Chevalier a repaired to Madrid, 
and was publicly received as King James the Third. § j p 
The Spaniards had borne the loss of Gibraltar b very ’ 

b § y, p. 4yo. 

uneasily, and the Duke of Ormond c assured them c § 2 p 510 
that the first act of his master, when placed on the 
throne, would be to restore it. According to the scheme of Albe¬ 
roni. 12,000 Swedish troops were to land in Scotland, whilst the 
Spaniards undertook to send a fleet against England. To man it, 
the services of the desperate pirates called buccaneers were sought 
These men were the terror of the Spanish colonies, and by employ¬ 
ing them against the English the crafty cardinal hoped to get rid 
of two enemies at once. But the scheme entirely miscarried. The 
Kino- of Sweden was killed before a fortress in Norway, Sir George 

o 

Byng defeated a Spanish fleet in the Mediterranean, and other officers 
hunted down the buccaneers in the West Indies. In spite of these 
circumstances a Spanish fleet was got together in 1719, and sailed, 
under the command of Ormond, to invade Scotland. But it was 
dispersed by a storm, and only the vessel in which Ormond was, 
with 300 followers, reached its destination. On seeing that he 
had brought so few troops with him, the clans declined to join 
him, and he returned to the Continent, where he died in exile 
many years afterward. 

§ 9. The apprehensions caused by the designs of Alberoni had 
scarcely subsided when the nation was disquieted [a.d. 1720] by a 
far more discreditable cause. This was the well-known South Sea 
scheme, partly based on the Asiento, or slave contract, already 
mentioned, d and which was to be carried out with re- d § ^ ^ 4% 
newed vigor now that peace with Spain was restored. 

A company had been formed some years before for trading to the 
South Seas, from which the Spaniards tried to exclude all other 
nations, and to this company many privileges were conceded by the 
oo* 

/JrJ 


514 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 


[Book X. 

The South Sea Scheme. Insane Stock-jobbing. Swindlers Punished. 

treaty of Utrecht. a Not content with these, however, Sir John 
Blunt and the other directors made a bargain with the 
§17, p.496. g 0verument) by w hich they engaged to relieve the 
nation from the burden of annuities to the amount of £800,000, 
which had been contracted in the last reign to carry on the war, by 
inducing people to take their security instead of that of the State. 
Of course great privileges were granted to them for this; but the 
directors dishonestly exaggerated them, as by pretending that the 
Spaniards had agreed to give the silver mines of Peru in exchange 
for Gibraltar, and that they were to have the working of them. 

§ 10. An insane haste to grow rich now seemed to seize on the 
whole nation, and every description of property was parted with 
to invest its price in the shares of the wonderful company, com¬ 
pared with which the company that had for more than a century 
traded to the East, b and had already laid the founda- 
b § 8, p. 447. ^ ong of t | ie E m pj re 0 f India, seemed poor and incon¬ 
siderable. In a short time the shares were sold for ten times their 
nominal value, the directors promising that in six months they 
would pay a dividend of fifty per cent, on their cost. But long 
ere this time arrived, it began to be noticed that some men who 
had been most active in pushing forward the scheme were parting 
with their shares, and the people at once saw that they had been 
deliberately cheated. Their confidence sank as quickly as it had 
risen, a terrible clamor arose, and a parliamentary investigation fol¬ 
lowed. The directors were imprisoned, and their estates, valued 
at £2,000,000, were divided among the sufferers. Several members 
were expelled from the House of Commons as having been con¬ 
cerned in the fraud, and the popular belief was that every one of 
the ministers and court favorites, and even the king himself, had 
received bribes for conniving at it. Lord Stanhope, vehemently 
defending himself from this charge in the House of Lords [Decem¬ 
ber, 1721], broke a blcod-vessel from excitement, and died the 
following day. 

§ 11. The discontent excited by these shameful disclosures 
caused the renewal of attempts in favor of the Chevalier, but they 
were frustrated. Mr. Layer, a lawyer, was executed, and Atter- 
bury, Bishop of Rochester, w T as banished by a Bill of Pams and 
Penalties. He proceeded to France, where he met 
c § 2, p. 5io. B 0 p n gi )ro ] ?:ej c rea dy 5 to return to England. He had 
good reason to believe that Bolingbroke had earned his pardon 


515 


Chapter I.] THE HOUSE OF BRUNSWICK. 

Mischief-making Bolingbroke. Two Court Parties. Death of the King. 

by betraying liis associates, and remarked, “We are exchanged.” 
If such was really the case, the king had made a very unwise bar¬ 
gain, as Bolingbroke was a most unprincipled man; and no sooner 
joined any party than he began plotting against it. The chief use 
that he made of his return was to widen the breach that already 
existed between King George and his only son, the Prince of 
Wales and heir to the throne. The prince was devotedly attached 
to his persecuted mother, and had risked his life to visit her in her 
prison. a He was naturally indignant at seeing her a § 1 p 510 
place taken by infamous women, and at the king’s 
infatuation in bestowing titles on them. His father revenged him¬ 
self by excluding him from the court, and thus a king s and a 
prince’s party was established. 

§ 12. George the First imitated William bypassing almost every 
summer on the Continent, though not like him engaged in war. 
He never took the trouble to acquire the English language, and he 
found no pleasure but in the company of his German subjects. 
With them he was popular, for they knew that he had been a brave 
soldier in his youth, and they were fully sensible of the advantages 
that they derived from his having gained the British crown. 
Early in the summer of 1727 he set out on his last visit to them. 
He was journeying in his coach with his favorite, the Duchess of 
Kendal, when a letter was thrown in at the* window, and on read¬ 
ing it he fell into a fit of apoplexy, of which he died before he 
could reach the residence of his brother, the Prince Bishop of 
Osnabruck. This occurred on the 11th of June, when he was in 
the sixty-eighth year of his age. The contents of this letter are 
not certainly known; but the popular idea was that it was from his 
wife, who had died in prison eight months before, and that she 
summoned him to meet her within a year before the eternal tribu¬ 
nal, to answer for his treatment of her, an innocent woman. 

§ 13. Coming, as he did, in contact with men trained in the 
elegant and literary society of the preceding reign, George I. ap¬ 
peared to great disadvantage. He was naturally sullen and 
reserved, and he never showed the least inclination to court the 
favor of his new subjects. They repaid his indifference with dis¬ 
like, and neither he nor his favorites could appear in public with¬ 
out being received with yells and execrations. This could not be 
expected to soften his temper, which was harsh and imperious 
enough already; and he took his revenge in refusing pardon to 


516 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book X. 

Accession of George the Second. War with Spain. Walpole’s Peace Policy. 

rioters and rebels wlieu they were so unfortunate as to fall into his 
hands; hence he was more unpopular at the day of his death than 
when he first landed in England. 


CHAPTER H. 

iieign of George the Second, [a.d. 1727 to 1760.] 

§ 1. Tiie Prince of Wales, then forty-four years of age, was 
proclaimed King of England on the 15th of June, 1727, as George 
the Second. The announcement created no special enthusiasm, for he 
was not very popular. He was meanly avaricious; and in person 
he was diminutive, pinched, and hard. But lie could speak Eng¬ 
lish fluently (which his father would not learn) ; and he was brave 
as a soldier, just, and somewhat more temperate than he. His 
wife, Caroline Wilhclmina, of Anspacli, was an able and excellent 
woman; and, fortunately for the realm, she was allowed to rule 
her husband. He had married her in 1705, and they had lived in 
harmony for more than twenty years. At his succession he had 
put Sir Spencer Compton in the place of the able Sir Robert 
Walpole, his father’s chief minister, but the latter was speedily 
reinstated. 

§ 2. Not long before the death of George the First a new war 
had broken out with Spain, and Gibraltar was besieged. It was 
not considered to be in any danger, and the fleet that would 
otherwise have been sent to its relief was despatched to the West 
Indies under Admiral Hosier. His orders were to watch the 
Spanish treasure-ships in Porto Bello, but not to attack them un¬ 
less they attempted to put to sea. He waited in vain for months 
in that fatal climate, and then died of grief and vexation. Three 
thousand of his seamen perished also. But the stoppage of the 
ships brought great distress on the Spaniards for want of money, 
and they were soon obliged to make offers of peace, which were 
accepted in 1728. 

§ 3. From this time for nearly twelve years Walpole kept the 
country from any foreign war, though he could not preserve in¬ 
ternal tranquillity. Ever since the coming of the continental kings 
and their foreign favorites, the cost of the court, the army, and the 



517 


Chapter II.] THE HOUSE OF BRUNSWICK. 

Taxation Riots. Lynch Law. Protestant Allegiance. Maria Theresa. 

navy were all far greater than they had been. New taxes there¬ 
fore became necessary, and one of these, the malt-tax, caused 
serious riots in Scotland in 1725, where it was represented as a 
breach of the conditions of the union; a whilst the ^ ^ ^ 
introduction of the English revenue laws into that 
country caused almost daily conflicts between the “ gaugers,” as 
they were called, and the people, in which lives were often lost. 
At the execution of a smuggler in Edinburgh, in the year 1736, 
a tumult ensued, when John Porteous, the captain of the town- 
guard, ordered his men to fire on the people, and six of them were 
killed. He was convicted of murder, and ordered for execution, 
but received a respite from the authorities in England. The 
Edinburgh populace, however* was determined that he should not 
thus escape, and they took their measures with wonderful secrecy 
and success. On the evening of the 7th of September they sud¬ 
denly gathered in crowds, secured the city gates with guards, 
broke open the prison, and carrying Porteous to the usual place 
of execution, hanged him on a dyer’s pole. The government 
brought in a bill to punish the city magistrates for neglect of 
duty, but this was strongly opposed by the Scottish members of 
parliament, and was abandoned. 

§ 4. In 1731, the jealousy that was entertained of the designs of 
France and Spain led to an alliance between England, the Em¬ 
peror Charles the Sixth, and the Dutch, each party having its own 
ends to serve. The Dutch still feared French encroachments; 
England saw both France and Spain, in spite of treaties, give 
shelter to the Stuarts, and furnish them with money and arms for 
use on the first favorable opportunity; and the Emperor, though 
threatened by no one, had a favorite project to carry out. He 
was that Austrian archduke who had contended for the crown of 
Spain. b Having no son, he wished to secure the sue- b § 7 p 492 
cession to his hereditary States, Austria, Bohemia, 

Hungary, the Netherlands, and other provinces, to his daughter 
Maria Theresa, and he tried to get France and Spain to guarantee 
the arrangement, which was embodied in a formal document called 
the Pragmatic Sanction. He could not effect this alone, but Eng¬ 
land and Holland gave their guarantee on his suppressing a trad¬ 
ing company at Ostend, which they considered injurious to their 
commerce with the East Indies. Tnus the seeds of s, long contest 
were sown; but by the management of Walpole, who wish d for 


518 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book X. 

Peace Policy Abandoned. Yernon’s Success against the Spaniards. 

peace above all things, open war was postponed for a while. 
Strangely enough, the English merchants did all they could to 
thwart Walpole’s policy, and at last they succeeded. 

§ 5. Passing over, as not connected with English history, the 
war between France and the emperor, though the Duke of Ber¬ 
wick, the son of King James, was killed in it in 1734, we come to 
the year 1739, when Walpole was compelled to abandon his peace 
policy. It was not then the custom for any country to allow 
foreigners to trade with its colonies; but in spite of this rule 
hundreds of English ships, from London and Bristol especially, 
carried on a contraband intercourse with the Spanish possessions. 
Many of them were seized by the Spaniards, when the owners made 
such loud complaints, and so exaggerated the treatment that their 
men met with, that the nation was roused into fury, and Walpole 
at last found that he must either make war or retire from office. 
In the House of Commons he tried to calm this warlike frenzy; 
but he was opposed by Admiral Vernon, a rough seaman, who 
exclaimed, “ Give me only six men of war and I will take that 
Porto Bello where Hosier and his men perished without being 
allowed to strike a blow. ” War was inevitable from that moment. 

§ 6. Vernon was taken at his word by Walpole, in the hope, the 
enemies of the minister said, that he might fail, for he was a 
troublesome man in parliament. He was appointed to the com¬ 
mand in the West Indies, and sailed, with just the six ships that he 
had asked for, in the summer of 1739. By Christmas came the 
news that he had made good his boast, and had taken Porto 
Bello with the loss of only eight killed and twelve wounded. The 
place was far too unhealthy to be retained, and Vernon left it 
after destroying the forts and carrying off their fine brass guns as 
trophies. 

§ 7. The Spaniards now roused themselves, and sent so strong a 
fleet to the West Indies that Vernon was obliged to remain inac¬ 
tive at Jamaica for the whole of the year 1740. Early in 1741 he 
was joined by several ships, with a large body of troops on begird, 
under the command of General Wentworth. An attack was made 
on Carthagena, and Vernon, who was of a boastful disposition 
though a brave man, at once sent a despatch to England giving such 
assurance of immediate success that public illuminations and 
rejoicings followed as if the place had been taken. This proved 
to be a mistake. The garrison made a brave defence, the admiral 


Chapter II.] THE HOUSE OF BRUNSWICK. 519 

Quarrels bring Reverses. Voyage around the World. 

and the general quarrelled, and each made attacks without the 
support of the other. The rains set in, and after a two months’ 
siege the force withdrew, having lost more than 3,000 men. Ver¬ 
non was not yet daunted. After refitting at Jamaica, he sailed 
first to St. Jago in Cuba, nnd then again to Porto Bello, with the 
intent of marching across the isthmus and storming the rich town 
of Panama; but in each case Wentworth, who was described by 
the admiral as “changeable as the moon,” declined at the last 
minute to co-operate, and nothing was done. Soon afterward both 
were recalled to England, where Vernon was well received, all the 
failures being attributed to Wentworth. 

§ 8. In 1740 another expedition was despatched against the 
Spanish colonies, under Commodore Anson; but it suffered more 
damage than it inflicted. Several ships were lost, and the crews 
were either drowned or made prisoners; but the Centurion, Anson’s 
own ship, returned in 1744, having sailed round the world, plun¬ 
dered the town of Payta in Peru, and captured a Spanish treasure- 
ship with a cargo valued at £300,000, or $1,500,000. 

§ 9. In the year that this expedition sailed the Emperor of Ger¬ 
many died, and the War of the Austrian Succession" a ^ 4 p 5W 
commenced. Charles Albert, Elector of Bavaria, dis¬ 
puted the legality of the Pragmatic Sanction, and, with the sup¬ 
port of France and Spain, attempted to seize the Austrian States. 
He was the son of the elector who had fought against Marlbo¬ 
rough, 15 and therefore was looked upon in England as b § 5 p 491 
an hereditary enemy; beside which his success would 
add to the strength of France and disturb that “balance of power” 
which English statesmen thought essential to their safety. The 
young and beautiful Maria Theresa appeared in the Hungarian 
Assembly with her infant in her arms, and all swore to live and die 
in her cause. The feeling was greatly in her favor in England also. 

§ 10. Soon after this Walpole was driven from office by Pul- 
teney, Pelham, and others, 1 who had always declaimed against the 
entanglement in foreign politics that the treaty of 1731 had pro- 


i Pnlteney had been the leader of the opposition to Walpole, but he now declined 
office, and was created Earl of Bath. He, however, continued to direct the proceedings 
of Pelham, who took the post of premier. Men of different views joined him, whence 
his administration was called the “Broad Bottom,” or Coalition Ministry. Pelham 
remained in office until his death in 1754, when he was succeeded by his brother, the 
Duke of Newcastle. 


520 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 


[Book X. 


German Mercenaries. Hanover. The King and Prince of Wales. 

duced; a but when they had thus become ministers they tried to 
recommend themselves to the king by forwarding all 
§4, p. oi7. v i ews f ar more than Walpole had ever done. 
Indeed, Walpole had offended his master by his peace policy, 
though he was so valued on other accounts that he was parted 
with reluctantly, and even when in retirement his advice was 
sought by the king. Instead of declaring war, the new ministers 
took the middle course of paying large bodies of German merce¬ 
naries for the service of the queen, and sending English troops to 
act with them in support of the Elector of Hanover. The king* on 
his part, took especial care of his native country, and prevented it 
becoming the theatre of war by promising to vote for the election 
of Charles Albert as Emperor of Germany, a dignity to which 
Maria Theresa’s husband, Francis, Grand Duke of Tuscany, also 
aspired, and which he eventually obtained. This was but one of 
many difficulties that arose from the double character and con¬ 
flicting interests of the sovereign as an English king and a Ger¬ 
man prince—a difficulty not entirely removed until the accession 
of Queen Victoria, in 1837. 

§11. The king, like his father, was in the habit of passing 
almost every summer in Germany, and he was also like him in 
having an opponent in his son Frederick, Prince of Wales, who, 
under the evil counsel of Bolingbroke, tried to thwart all his mea¬ 
sures. Hence his usual companion on his journeys was his second 
son, William, Duke of Cumberland. The king had served under 
Marlborough, and though war had not formally been declared with 
France, he did not hesitate to take command of the allied army 
[1743], assisted by that son, then only twenty-two years of age. 
The king’s conduct, however, was unskilful, and he suffered him¬ 
self to be hemmed in by the French in a very dangerous position. 

„ The rashness of the French proved their ruin, just as 
b § 11, p. 209. 1 J 

it had done ages before at Crecy, b at Poitiers, 0 and 

c ^ 16, p ' 212 ‘ at Agincourt. d Confident in their superior numbers^ 

u § p. • mac [ e a careless attack upon the allies in the open 

plain at Dettingen, near the Main, and were totally defeated on the 

16th of June, 1743. This is the last time that a king of England 

has actually commanded an army in the field. 

§ 12. In the preceding year Admiral Matthews had been sent to 

the Mediterranean, and without actually proceeding to hostilities, 

had hindered the Italian maritime states from giving assistance to 


521 


Chapter II.] THE HOUSE OF BRUNSWICK. 

Events of the War. England Threatened. The Young Pretender. 

the Spaniards. The French, however, gave shelter to a Spanish 
fleet in Toulon, when Matthews blockaded the harbor. At length, 
in February, 1744, the French and Spanish fleets came out together, 
and Matthews attacked them both. He was, however, but badly 
supported by some of his captains, and the action was indecisive. 
He and his next in command, Lestock, complained of each other. 
Courts-martial followed, and Matthews was dismissed the service, 
though he had fought bravely, and the insubordinate Lestock had 
not; but he belonged to the ruling party. 

§ 13. Declarations of war followed, in Paris and in London, the 
arrival of the news of the battle off Toulon, and a campaign in 
Flanders ensued in 1745, when the allies, under the Duke of Cum¬ 
berland, George’s second son, were defeated by the French, under 
Marshal Saxe, at Fontenoy, on the 30th of April, 1745. The action 
was desperately contested by the English, but they were not suffi¬ 
ciently supported by their Dutch allies, and at last had to retreat 
with great loss. The whole of Flanders was speedily overrun by 
the French, for the English troops were soon called away to meet 
a rebellion at home. 

§ 14. As soon as war had been declared in 1744, the French col¬ 
lected a fleet for the purpose of invading England in the cause of 
the Chevalier St. George; a but it was dispersed by a r ^ ^ 

storm, and the attempt, which was to have been made 
with 15,000 troops, under the renowned Marshal Saxe, was aban¬ 
doned. In 1745 the French had changed their policy, and pre¬ 
ferred to keep their troops for service in Germany. James Edward, 
who had landed in Scotland thirty years before, b was 

b S 4, p, 511. 

inclined to remain quiet, but his son, Charles Edward, 
a handsome, enterprising young man, stole away from him at Rome, 
repaired to France, and determined to strike a bold stroke for the 
throne. He sold some jewels, and thus bought a cargo of arms, 
which he was allowed to put on board a French man-of-war, and 
under its convoy he embarked in a smaU vessel with only seven 
companions. But on the voyage the Lion , an English ship, com¬ 
manded by one of Anson’s captains, fell in with the French man- 
of-war, and after an action of some hours damaged her so severely 
that she was obliged to return to France. The young prince, how¬ 
ever, undauntedly pursued his voyage, though he had now neither 
arms, ammunition, nor money. 

§ 15. Arriving on the west coast of Scotland, Prince Charles 


522 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book X. 

Lochiel and his Piper. Rebellion in Scotland. Young Pretender in Edinburgh. 

Edward sent for Cameron of Locliiel, whose family had fought 
and suffered in the cause of the Stuarts ever since the time of 
Dundee. a Lochiel told him that, coming as he did, 

8 ’ * success was hopeless, and he would do wisely to re¬ 

turn to France. The chiefs piper had accompanied him on board, 
and though he could not understand their language, he saw that his 
master declined to do something that the prince besought him to 
do. To the bom loyalty of the Highlander this was terrible; his 
color changed, and he paced to and fro fingering his dirk in great 
agitation. This caught the eye of the prince, and, as he knew a 
few words of Gaelic, he cried, “ Piper, you will draw a sword for 
me !»—a i i w m ! ” W as the enthusiastic reply; “if no other 

man in the land draws a sword, I will fight for you, and die for 
you! ” Lochiel could hold back no longer. “ Come weal, come 
woe,” he exclaimed, “I follow my prince.” The little party 
landed, and the disastrous rising of 1745 commenced. The vale 
of Glenfinnan, about twenty miles from Fort William, was selected 
as the rendezvous, and a pillar now stands there which tells that 
there the standard of the Stuarts was set up on the 17th of August, 
1745. 

§ 16. Lochiel and his Camerons were the last to arrive at the 
appointed spot; but they brought with them two companies of 
soldiers captured on their march, which was received as an omen 
of success. As soon as they began to move, Sir John Cope, the 
commander in Scotland, set out to intercept them; but the insurgents 
skilfully evaded him, and whilst he was seeking for them among 
the Grampians, they took possession of Edinburgh without oppo¬ 
sition, proclaimed James the Eighth 1 in solemn form, and estab 
lished Charles Edward in the Palace of Holyrood, where he held 
a court attended by no inconsiderable number of the Scottish 
nobility and gentry. One of his first acts was to issue a procla¬ 
mation, in his father’s name, declaring his intention of dissolving 
the Union, which was still looked on as a national injury. 

§ 17. Sir John Cope, on learning that the Highlanders had 
passed him, instead of attempting to pursue them, embarked his 
troops at Aberdeen and landed at Dunbar. He marched forward 
towards Edinburgh, and the Highlanders advanced to meet him. 
On the 20th of September only a piece of marshy ground called 

i It must be remembered that James the First of England, the Chevalier’s grand¬ 
father, was James the Sixth of Scotland. 


523 


Chapter II.] THE HOUSE OF BRUNSWICK. 

Battle of Prestonpans. Victorious Highlanders at Edinburgh. 

Prestonpans, or Gladsmuir, lay between them, and the passage 
across seemed so difficult that neither was inclined to attempt it in 
the face of the other. Each army was of about the same strength 
(2,500 men) ; but the royal troops had the advantage of two regi¬ 
ments of dragoons and six pieces of artillery, whilst the High¬ 
landers had only about fifty horsemen, and one small gun, which 
was carried in a cart, far less for any use to be made of it, but be¬ 
cause the men liked to hear it fired when their prince appeared 
among them. 

§ 18. Both armies lay down at night to rest in the field, the reg¬ 
ulars, in contempt of their enemy, keeping no other watch than a 
few dragoons on the edge of the marsh. The Highlanders did 
not imitate them. No sooner was it quite dark than they sent 
out numerous scouts, who at length discovered several safe paths 
through the marsh. These were cautiously traversed in dead 
silence by the Highlanders; and just as the day broke, they fell 
with loud shouts upon the dragoons, who, without attempting a 
stand, fled into the camp, when the guns were captured on the 
instant, the horse put to flight, and the infantry either killed or 
captured, with scarcely any loss to the victors. Never before had 
a disciplined army been routed so quickly or so disgracefully. 
The cavalry threw away their arms and scattered in all directions, 
and Sir John fled to Berwick, where Lord Mark Kerr, a veteran 
of Marlborough’s wars, received him with the sarcastic compli¬ 
ment, that he believed him to be the first general that had ever 
brought the news of his own defeat. 

§ 19. The Highlanders returned in triumph to Edinburgh, plen¬ 
tifully supplied with arms and ammunition; and as they had now* 
artillery, though they knew little of its use, they determined to 
besiege the castle. General Guest, who commanded there, knew 
that he should serve the government best by inducing them to re¬ 
main before its walls, rather than proceed at once into England, 
which the few experienced officers among them strongly advised. 
He therefore replied very feebly to then* fire, as if he was obliged 
to be sparing of his ammunition; and he wrote several letters to the 
government which he took good care should fall into the besieg¬ 
ers’ hands, saying that he must surrender in a few days if not re¬ 
lieved ; at the same time he sent, by other channels, information 
to London, saying that he was well supplied with everything, 
and could hold the castle against all Scotland. 


524 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book X. 

The Scottish Court. Progress of the Rebellion. Honor of the Scotch. 

§ 20. Deluded in this way, the young Chevalier kept his court 
gayly. He new received arlns, men, and money from France, 
when they seemed not to be wanted. He was joined daily by 
fresh adherents; and having, after a six weeks’ trial, found that 
the capture of the castle was not to be hoped for, he crossed the 
border early in November, marching on foot with his men, now 
0,000 strong, in the Highland garb, sometimes with one clan, 
sometimes with another, for he had given up his carriage for the 
use of Lord Pitsligo, an aged nobleman. Carlisle was surren¬ 
dered to him, and before the end of the month he reached Man¬ 
chester, where some 200 Englishmen joined him, being the only 
body that did so. Here dissensions appealed among his followers, 
who were disappointed at seeing no symptoms of a rising in their 
favor, and many of them wished at once to return to Scotland. 
They were induced, however, to advance as far as Derby, and were 
then a day’s march nearer London than either of the armies, each 
10,000 strong, that had been sent to intercept them, under the Duke 
of Cumberland and Marshal Wade, but which they had eluded as 
they had done that of Sir John Cope. Terrible alarm now prevailed 
in London, where the king formed a camp on Finchley Common, 
and put himself at the head of the troops to fight for his capital, 
but at the same time prepared for defeat by sending his treas¬ 
ure on board the royal yacht in the Thames. 

§ 21. These precautions all proved unnecessary. At Derby the 
Highlanders absolutely insisted on retreating, and they did so on 
the 6th of December, carrying the prince with them. He, however, 
now resumed his ordinary dress, and rode in his coach, surrounded 
by his life-guard, a troop of Lowland gentlemen, who kept as far dis¬ 
tant as possible from the Highlanders, the prince no longer mixing 
with them. Yet, in spite of their dissensions, they made their retreat 
with wonderful skill and expedition, and at Clifton Moor, where 
they were overtaken by the English dragoons of the Duke’s army 
[Dec. 10], they beat them off with such severe loss that they were no 
longer followed up closely. On the 23d of December they again 
crossed the border, having marched nearly 600 miles without disor¬ 
der or plunder. Indeed, so scrupulous were they on this point, that 
when, in their first march on Edinburgh, they came near Oxenford 
»§ li p 484 ( -' astle ’ tlie P ro P ert y 0:f the hated Earl of Stair,* 1 the Glen¬ 
coe men claimed as their right to mount guard there 
and save it from injury, which they did. At their own request the 


525 


Chapter II. J THE HOUSE OF BRUNSWICK. 

Harsh Measures. Movements of Troops. Battle of Culloden. 

English were left as a garrison at Carlisle, they seeming to fear the 
vengeance of the royal troops less than the hardships of a High¬ 
land campaign. They had to surrender to the Duke of Cumberland 
very soon afterward. The officers were executed, and the common 
men sent to the American plantations. 

§ 22. Again established in Scotland, and not as yet molested by 
pursuers, the young Chevalier, leaving Edinburgh as confessedly 
beyond his strength, laid siege to Stirling Castle. General Hawley 
attempted to relieve it, but was defeated at Falkirk on the 17th of 
January, 1746, and put to flight. From the incompetence or treach¬ 
ery of a French engineer, however, the siege made no progress, 
and the Highlanders, with one accord, retired to their mountains, 
promising to return 10,000 strong in the spring. 

§ 23. As soon as the roads and the weather allowed, the Duke 
of Cumberland moved into the Highlands from Aberdeen, his 
winter quarters, to attack Inverness. He had with him about 
1,000 horse and 8,000 foot, many of them veterans from Fontenoy; 
and others, men who had so disgracefully fled at Prestonpans and 
at Falkirk, were eager to re-establish their character with their 
comrades. The Highlanders could not muster above 5,000, but 
they hoped to repeat the success of Prestonpans by a night attack 
on the troops in their quarters. The Duke’s birthday occurred at 
this time [April 13], and he halted at Naim to celebrate it, and to 
receive supplies from the fleet that accompanied him. These were 
lavishly distributed among all classes, and the camp was for days 
one scene of drunken riot and confusion. 

§ 24. The Highlanders not unreasonably hoped to find the ca¬ 
rousing English unprepared. But the difficulties of the twelve 
miles’ march proved greater than had been expected, and daylight 
came when they were still far from the camp. They then fell back, 
exhausted and starving, to Culloden Moor, near Inverness, where 
they were followed by the royal troops, and at about noon [April 
16] a desperate fight began. The Highlanders suffered much from 
the royal guns, whilst their own were almost useless from want of 
skill, and when they tried a furious charge, led on by Lord George 
Murray, though they broke the English first line, the second and 
third kept up a heavy fire which they were not able to withstand. 
The English then drove them before them at the point of the bay¬ 
onet, and Hawley’s dragoons, breaking in on their flank through a 
gap made in a park wall, took terrible revenge for their former 


526 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book X. 

Cruelty of the English Commander. Escape of the Pretender. 

disgrace. This feeling unhappily actuated not only the men but 
their officers, and not only the Duke but the government. All alike 
seem to have been governed by a spirit of vengeance not unlike 
that which treated the Irish so cruelly a century before. 

§ 25. The Duke allowed wounded men to be murdered, and 
women and children to be driven out to perish. He made an ab¬ 
solute desert for many miles around his quartern, earning thereby 
the name, not yet forgotten in Scotland, of the Butcher; and 
General Hawley imitated him but too well. The government had 
been equally frightened, and proved equally merciless. A shame¬ 
ful price of £30,000 had been put upon the head of the young 
Chevalierbut neither this sum, on the one hand, nor the frightful 
severity exercised on the other, could tempt even the poorest to 
betray him. After a series of hardships only paralleled by the 
fidelity of his adherents, he escaped to France, where he landed at 
the end of September, 1746. Probably irritated by his escape, the 
victors seemed bent on exterminating his partisans, and, except to 
the Earl of Cromartie, scarcely a single pardon seems to have been 
granted. Lords Kilmarnock and Balmerino were beheaded, and 
all the officers and men were treated as the Carlisle garrison had 
already been. a A thorough disarming of the clans 
a § 21, p. 524. followe( j 5 tlien a breaking up of the old hereditary 

authority of their chiefs—a government within a government— 
and, which galled more bitterly perhaps than all the rest, the pic¬ 
turesque Highland dress was proscribed, under heavy penalties. 

§ 26. Extraordinary diligence, too, was shown in tracking 
offenders. The brother of the Earl of Derwentwater b 
i> §4, p. 511. wag ge i ze( j an q executed in 1746 on an attainder of 
1716; and Dr. Cameron, who had been a surgeon in the rebel 
army, and was recognized by some royal soldiers whom he had 
attended, was executed as a traitor in 1750. One culprit, how¬ 
ever, suffered in 1747, whose fate no one could regret. This was 
Simon Frazer, Lord Lovat, who for fifty years had been in the 
habit of taking bribes from and betraying all parties, but had 
hitherto escaped the punishment that he so well deserved, for 
beside his political offences he was one of the most atrocious 
characters of the age. He had refused to join the Chevalier, and 
when his son did so with 800 of his clan, he professed to disavow 
him. But a patent for a dukedom from James the Eighth was 
discovered when his house was searched, and he was soon after- 


527 


Chapter II.] THE HOUSE OF BRUNSWICK. 

Capture of Louisburg. End of the War of the Austrian Succession. 

ward found wrapped up in a blanket, and hid in a hollow tree. 
He was brought to London, tried, and condemned. He suffered 
with stoical composure, repeating a Latin, verse implying that he 
rejoiced to die for his country. 

§ 27. Whilst the government was thus wreaking its vengeance 
at home, the war abroad was continued with much variety of for¬ 
tune. The strong fortress of Louisburg, on Cape Breton, together 
with the island, was captured from the French on the 28th of 
June, 1745, by the Anglo-American colonists of' Massachusetts 
Bay, and a British fleet under Admiral Warren. From that time 
may be dated the rise of the idea of their own strength that led 
those colonists to shake off their allegiance to the mother country 
thirty years later. In 1746 a formidable armament, sent to reduce 
Port l’Orient, in Brittany, under the Admiral Lestock already 
mentioned,* 1 failed disgracefully; but in the. follow- 

& J ’ a § 12, p . 520. 

ing year Admirals Anson, Hawke, and Warren were 
successful against French squadrons in the same quarter. These 
victories were balanced by a defeat sustained at Laffelt by the 
Duke of Cumberland [June 20, 1747], and all parties being now 
weary of the war, a peace was concluded at Aix-la-Chapelle in 
October, 1748. 

§ 28. The only gainers by this war for the Austrian succession, 
and which is known in American history as King George’s War, 
were two German powers. Maria Theresa and her husband had 
all their claims acknowledged, and Frederick of Prussia, the 
nephew of King George, and afterward known as Frederick the 
Great, retained the province of Silesia, which he had, without the 
shadow of a pretext, seized when their fortunes were at a low ebb. 
All conquests were to be given up, but to insure the restoration of 
Cape Breton, two noblemen, the Earl of Sussex and Lord Cathcart, 
were sent to Paris as hostages. This humiliation was greatly 
murmured at even by those who wished for peace, and the young 
Chevalier, then living in France, exclaimed: “Poor England! has 
she sunk so low that her word cannot be taken ? ” 

§ 29. Eight years elapsed before war was formally declared 
again; but the whole period was one of armed trace, with cease¬ 
less complaints and recrimination between England and France, 
for their interests were diametrically opposed both in the East and 
in the West, and the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle made no adequate 
provision for settling any tiling. Both had growing colonies in 


528 1 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book X. 

The American Colonies. Impending War in America. War in Germany. 

America. The English, a million strong, occupied the seaboard 
along a line a thousand miles in extent. The French, one hundred 
thousand strong, were seated chiefly on the St. Lawrence and in 
Eastern America. They were determined to check the expansion 
of the English possessions, and to do so they formed alliances with 
the savage tribes of the forest. 

§ 30. Commissioners were appointed by the two governments to 
consider matters; but their decisions were utterly disregarded by 
the rival trading companies in India, which sought empire, and 
were equally unacceptable to the colonists in America, who weie 
constantly coming into collision. These, at length, got tired of 
their fruitless task, and made preparations for a straggle for 
colonial supremacy. At last an English fleet was sent to India in 
1754, and in the next year an army was despatched to Virginia, 
whilst at the same time two French ships, which were carrying re¬ 
inforcements to Canada, were attacked and captured without any 
declaration of war. 

§ 31. War, of course, immediately followed, but was not con¬ 
fined to either India or the colonies. Justly provoked at the 
rapacity of Frederick of Prussia, Austria and France agreed to 
attempt the partition of his dominions. Frederick, by means of 
bribes to a clerk, learned the secret, and struck the first blow by 
invading Saxony. A war in Germany alarmed the British mon¬ 
arch, for he perceived that his kingdom of Hanover 
« § P . 512. wag jeopardy.a t 0 secure its safety he first entered 
into a treaty with Russia, and next took an army of Hessian mer¬ 
cenaries into pay; but knowing the unscrupulous character of his 
nephew Frederick, who would be quite as ready to seize on Han¬ 
over as he had seized on Silesia, he soon thought it best to espouse 
his cause, and sent the Duke of Cumberland to his assistance. 
This brought about the very ill it was meant to prevent. Freder¬ 
ick w T as defeated at Kolin, and the French then turned their aims 
against the Duke of Cumberland. He was no match for the 
French general, Richelieu, and he was soon obliged to enter into a 
convention at Kloster Seven, by which he withdrew from the con¬ 
test, and lost Hanover. That was in the year 1757. The king 
was terribly enraged at this, when the duke (his son) resigned all 
h employments and retired into private life. 

32. In other quarters the war was conducted little to the 
advantage of England. General Braddock and an army were 


529 


Chapter II.] TIIE HOUSE OF BRUNSWICK. 

Braddock’s Defeat. Loss of Minorca. Admiral Byng; William Pitt. 

cut off iii tlie wilds of America, by tile French and their Indian 
allies, on the 9tli of July, 1755, and the survivors owed their escape 
mainly to the skill and courage of George Washington, then a 
major in a colonial militia. In 1756 a French fleet captured 
Minorca, after a slight action with the English fleet under Admiral 
Byng. The loss of the island was really owing to the incom¬ 
petent ministry. When the war broke out, they had not a single 
foreign possession in a proper state of defence. They left Minorca 
feebly garrisoned until the enemy were close at hand, and then 
hurried off Byng, with a fleet not half manned or provided with 
stores. He was to take two regiments for its relief from Gibraltar; 
but the governor expected to be attacked himself, and would not 
spare them, when Byng wrote home, holding him responsible for 
the consequences. This the ministry took as a reflection on them¬ 
selves, and when the loss of the island occurred they had the base¬ 
ness to turn the popular fury against the admiral. He was im¬ 
prisoned for a time at Greenwich Hospital, and being then put 
on his trial, he was shot, by sentence of a court-martial, at Ports¬ 
mouth on the 14th of March, 1757. 

§ 33. In spite of the sacrifice of Byng, the Duke of Newcastle, 
who had become premier® in 1754, found himself 
obliged to quit office, and after a few months 1 attempt ^ 4 ’ P ' °°°‘ 
at government by the Duke of Devonshire, the headship of the 
cabinet passed to William Pitt, a man of a very different stamp 
from either of them. He had been a comet of horse, but when 
he became a member of parliament he inveighed so fiercely against 
Walpole that his commission was taken from him. He was natu¬ 
rally proud and passionate, and this treatment did not soften his 
temper. He continued his attack on the minister, and gave 
offence to the king personally by attaching himself to the house¬ 
hold of the Prince of Wales. b When Walpole was 
driven from office, Pulteney, 6 who was the real head * ’ ' ' 

of the new ministry, would have included Pitt, but ’ P ' ° ’' 
the king would not hear of it. Pitt, however, gave the ministry 
his support, and received the highly profitable office of paymaster- 
general. In 1746 he resigned his post, and he remained in opposi¬ 
tion as long as Pelham and the Duke of Newcastle continued in 
office. After some difficulty, caused by the king’s-still remaining 
dislike of him, his turn at last came to govern the country, and he 
did it with a steady hand. 


530 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 


[Book X. 

England's Power manifested. Operations in India. 

§ 34. In the year 1758 the French gave out that they were pre¬ 
paring for an invasion of England, and Pitt determined to antici¬ 
pate them. An expedition was sent against the French arsenal of 
Cherbourg, which it stormed and took, destroying an immense 
quantity of stores, and 200 iron guns. Twenty handsome brass 
pieces were brought off as trophies, and paraded through London 
in triumph. Attacks on other places on the French coast followed, 
but were not successful. Pitt therefore took the bold step of 
sending 20,000 English soldiers to Germany, where they mainly 
gainedrthe battle of Minden [August 1,1759], though serving with 
the Prussians. The English navy also obtained many victories, 
capturing the French West India Islands, and defeating several 
squadrons in different places, as at Lagos, the Isle of Aix, and off 
Brest, where a fleet that had long been blockaded in the harbor 
was, on coming out, destroyed by Hawke. But these blows, though 
heavy, were little in comparison with what befell the enemy both 
in the East Indies and in America, where each party had important 
territorial possessions. 

§ 35. In the former country the rival companies had long, under 
the pretence of assisting various princes, been really contending 
for empire. M. Dupleix and Robert Clive are the prominent names 
m their struggles. Dupleix had made the French influence para¬ 
mount in India; but acquired such vast riches and power for him¬ 
self that he became an object of jealousy to the French ministry, 
and was recalled, prosecuted, and died a rained man. His suc¬ 
cessors were incompetent men, utterly unfit to contend with he 
genius of Clive. He captured their forts, detached the native 
princes from their alliance, and retook Calcutta, which had fallen 
into the hands of Surajah-Dowlah, 1 one of the most powerful of 
them. He soon after overthrew Surajah at Plassey, and bestowed 
his government on Meer Jaffier, who in return made such vast con¬ 
cessions to the English company, that their dominion there was 
firmly established [a.d. 1757]. In two yearn more the French fleet 
was driven from the Indian seas, and their land forces were shut 
up in Pondicherry, their sole remaining possession. These successes 
were the result of Clive’s energy and decision, and with but little 
help from the government at home. 

i On this occasion 146 Europeans being crowded into a small room, ever since 
known as “ the Black Hole of Calcutta,” 128 of them perished by suffocation before 
the morning. 


Chapter II.] THE HOUSE OF BRUNSWICK. 


531 


The French and Indian War in America. Campaigns. Attack on Canada. 

§ 36. There was equal success in America. Cape Breton, a as we 

have seen, was restored to the French, by treaty, in 

’ . . . , i . 8 § 28, p. 527. 

1747. W hen, eight years afterward, war between 

England and France again broke out, it was retaken on the 26th of 
July, 1758, where General Wolfe greatly distinguished himself. 
The conflict known in America as the French and Indian War had 
then been going on for three years. While the army of Braddock 
was suffering disaster in Western Pennsylvania, b other ^ ^ 

British forces, cliiefly American, were contending suc¬ 
cessfully for the mastery on the Upper Hudson and Lakes George 
and Champlain, under Sir William Johnson and General Lyman. 

§ 37. In the following year four little armies prepared to assail 
the French and their dusky allies at four different points, namely, 
Crown Point, on Lake Champlain ; Niagara, at the mouth of the 
Niagara River; Fort du Quesne, where Pittsburg, in Pennsyl¬ 
vania, now stands, and the French settlement on the Cliaudiere 
River, in Canada. But very little was effected during the cam¬ 
paigns of that and the following year [1757], owing to the extreme 
tardiness of Lord Loudon, the commander-in-chief in America. 
The result of the war, so far, was humiliating to British pride, and 
productive of much irritation of feeling among the Anglo-Ameri¬ 
can colonists. 

§ 38. The energy, forecast, and good judgment of Pitt in making 
plans and: choosing men to execute them now changed the aspect 
of affairs in America, and won the confidence of the Anglo-Ame¬ 
ricans. He consulted with young Wolfe, who had distinguished 
himself in the capture of Cape Breton the second time; and the plan 
of an attack on the important colony of Canada, or New France, 
as it had been called, was settled between them. The central and 
western parts were to be assailed by the Anglo-American colo¬ 
nists and British regulars, under Lord Amherst, and they were then 
to descend the St. Lawrence and join Wolfe in an attack on Que¬ 
bec, the capital, and the most strongly fortified city in America. 
But these forces, though successful, did not make as quick pro¬ 
gress as had been expected, and when Wolfe arrived before Que¬ 
bec he found he was left to his own resources. 

§ 39. The defenders of Quebec were more than twice as nume¬ 
rous as Wolfe’s troops, and were commanded by the Marquis de 
Montcalm, an officer of great reputation. They occupied a strong 
position outside the city, and Wolfe was repulsed in an attack on 


532 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book X. 

Conquest of Canada. Death of George the Second. His Character and Reign. 

it. He persevered until the beginning of autumn, and then car¬ 
ried his whole force farther up the river, above Quebec. On the 
morning of the 13th September, 1759, he placed his land forces in 
boats, and, accompanying them himself, passed down the stream 
to a place since known as Wolfe’s Cove. Here he landed, climbed 
the rocks at a place that had been left unguarded, as being con¬ 
sidered inaccessible, and appeared upon a high plateau in the 
rear of the city, known as the Plains of Abraham. This compelled 
Montcalm to leave his strong post. In the battle that at once fol¬ 
lowed on the Plains, the French were totally defeated. Wolfe was 
killed in the moment of victory, and Montcalm died of his wounds 
a few days afterward. Quebec was then surrendered, and the whole 
of Canada was conquered in the course of the following year. 
Montreal, the last stronghold, was surrounded by 17,000 troops 
and a thousand Indian warriors, and was compelled to surrender 
to Amherst on the 8tli of September, 17G0. 

§ 40. These successes were dear to the warlike mind of the 
king, and they almost reconciled him to the able minister that had 
been forced on him. The reconciliation might have been com¬ 
pleted but for the sudden death of the monarch, which occurred 
in a month after the fall of Montreal and the consequent extinc¬ 
tion of the French power in Canada. On the morning of the 25th 
of October he drank his chocolate as usual, and soon afterward 
the ventricle of his heart buret, and he fell dead at the age of sev¬ 
enty-seven years. 

§ 41. King George remained all his life thoroughly German, but 
he was not unpopular with his English subjects, as his father had 
been, for they saw that he was brave, active, and good-natured, 
and that he was in the right and liis son in the wrong in their 
quarrels.* 1 Hence all but the partisans of the Stuarts 

a ^ n ’ p ' ° 20 ‘ were well inclined towards him; and his foreign 
wars, though not undertaken in the interest of England, but in 
that of his Electorate of Hanover (for the defence of which he 
spent his private fortune and his savings), -were borne with far less 
impatience than might have been expected. His son Frederick 
having died in 1754, he was succeeded by his grandson George, 
the first of the Brunswick kings that was born in England. 


533 


Chapter III.] THE HOUSE OF BRUNSWICK. 

Accession of George the Third. Bute the Favorite. 


CHAPTER III. 

BEIGN OF GEORGE THE ThiBD [a.D. 1760 TO 1820.] 

§ 1. Prince George was riding out on horseback near Kew 
Palace when the news of his grandfather’s death was brought to 
him. John Stuart, Earl of Bute, a gay and formerly a needy 
Scotch nobleman, who had been the prince’s tutor, and was a great 
favorite with his mother, was then, as usual, his companion on 
the road. They repaired to Kew, and were soon joined by Pitt, 
the real head of the government, who presented the new king with 
a sketch of an address to be pronounced at a meeting of the Privy 
Council, the chosen advisers of the monarch, when he was told 
that a speech had already been prepared for that occasion. This 
satisfied the Great Commoner, as Pitt was called, , that his power 
would be transferred to another. 

§ 2. When, on the 18tli of November, the king met parliament 
for the first time, the clause in his speech, “ Born and educated in 
this country, I glory in the name of Briton,” excited much enthu¬ 
siasm ; yet there was an uneasy feeling abroad lest his mother’s 
favorite, Bute, might have undue influence over the monarch and 
make him too partial to that favorite’s countrymen. This feeling 
was manifested on the morning after the prince was proclaimed 
George the Third, by a paper that was found fixed upon the Royal 
Exchange, bearing the words, “No petticoat government—no 
Scotch minister ! ” Two days after the accession of George, Bute 
was sworn in as a member of the Privy Council. 

§ 8. Pitt saw that Bute, though a subordinate, had the king’s 
confidence, and his haughty spirit chafed at this; but he continued 
the war with vigor, and captured Belleisle, on the coast of France, 
not for any use that it could be, but as an exchange, at a future 
day, for Minorca. a The French, being now seriously ^ Q ^ 
distressed by the war, induced the kings of Spain 
and of the Two Sicilies to enter into a family compact (they were 
all relatives) for mutual defence. Pitt learned this, and proposed 
to make war on Spain at once. Had it been done, some treasure- 
ships that were on then* way to Europe would probably have been 
captured. He was overruled in the council, and tendered liis 
resignation. To his great surprise it was accepted, and Bute be- 


534 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 


[Book X. 

War with Spain. The National Debt. Wilkes and the Government. 

came premier on the 6th of October, 1761, whilst Pitt lost his 
popularity by accepting the title of Baroness of Chatham for his 
wife, and a pension of £3,000 a year for himself. 

§ 4. A very short time proved the soundness of Pitt’s advice. 
The treasure-ships were no sooner safe than the Spaniards formally 
gave notice of the family compact to the ministers. After this 
defiance they could not avoid declaring war. Two fleets were 
sent out, which in the course of 1762 carried out a part of Pitt’s 
plan, and captured two most important Spanish possessions. These 
were, the Havannah in Cuba, and Manilla in the Philippines; but 
before the news of the last exploit could arrive from the East, 
Bute was negotiating a peace, which was concluded in 1763. As 
Pitt had expected, Minorca was given back in exchange for Belle- 
isle ; and Canada, Nova Scotia, and some small West India islands 
were ceded to England; but the debt incurred by the war was so 
great (the national debt had now risen to £138,000,000, or $690,- 
000,000), and the advantages gained seemed so small, that much dis¬ 
content ensued, and Bute was driven from office [April, 1763]. 
Pitt had denounced the treaty; but Bute was attacked personally 
and most vehemently in a newspaper called the “North Briton,” 
conducted by John Wilkes, a member of parliament. Its object 
was to hold up Bute and his fellow-countrymen to odium; but 
other persons also were attacked, and even the king’s 

§1, p. 5-3. m0 ^ er ft was no t spared. In its last number (No. 
45) the king’s speech, which described the peace as honorable and 
beneficial, was commented on with such license that the ministry 
which had succeeded Bute determined on a prosecution. 

§ 5. This was the commencement of a contest that lasted, with 
slight intermission, for eleven years, and out of which Wilkes,' 
though a man of infamous character in some respects, came vic¬ 
torious. His paper was voted by the House of Commons “a 
false, scandalous, and malicious libel.” It was burnt by the hang¬ 
man amid a scene of riot, and he was expelled the House. Rather 
than stand his trial he escaped to France, and was outlawed; but 
before he went he had obtained £1,000 damages against the 
Secretary of State for the illegal seizure of his papers at the time 
of his arrest in May, 1763. In 1768 he returned, his outlawry was 
reversed on some point of form, and he was elected a member for 
Middlesex. He was now tried and imprisoned for the libel, which 
he had again published; and several people were killed in a riot 


535 


Chapter III.] THE HOUSE OF BRUNSWICK. 

Contest witk Wilkes. The American Colonies discover their Strength. 

when he was taken to jail. On this he wrote an inflammatory 
letter, which the parliament voted a libel, and he was again ex¬ 
pelled. The freeholders returned him a second time. The House 
then declared him incapable of sitting; and though he was a 
third time returned—for the electors insisted on their right of 
choice—they adhered to their determination. 

§ 6. The city of London next took up Wilkes’s cause, and ad¬ 
dressed the king in tones of indignant remonstrance at what they 
termed the tyranny of the parliament. They were unheeded; but 
when his imprisonment expired they chose him, first, alderman, 
then sheriff, and his debts, and expenses were paid by a body 
which called itself the Society of the Bill of Rights. When a 
new parliament assembled [a.d. 1774], he was, for the fourth time, 
returned for Middlesex, and was now allowed to take his seat. 
He afterwards became lord mayor, and as such carried up an 
address to the king, in 1775, praying for the removal of his minis¬ 
ters. In 1782 he procured the erasure from the journals of the 
resolutions that had been passed against him; and he retained his 
seat until his voluntary retirement from parliament in 1790. 

§ 7. But this discreditable contest was very far from the most 
important one that sprang from the terms of the peace of 1763. 
That peace had relieved the English colonists in America from 
any fear of disturbance from the French, as Canada was made 
over to England, and their other great settlement, Louisiana, was 
transferred to the indolent Spaniards. There now remained no 
enemies on their borders but the Indian tribes; and some suc¬ 
cesses which they had gained over these, and the part that their 
troops had taken in the last two wars, had given them a just idea 
of their strength. This, from their habit of self-government, their 
skill in the use of the rifle, acquired in the border wars, and the 
hardihood of their seafaring population, was, on the other hand, 
fatally undervalued in England. They now numbered about 
2,500,000 souls, and were divided into thirteen different colonies, 
most of them larger in area than European kingdoms. The colo¬ 
nies in the north, or New England States, as they called themselves, 
had been founded by the Puritans; Maryland, Virginia, and the 
Carolinas, in the south, were settled mainly by the exiled Cavaliers 
and Romanists; and the great central States of New York and 
Pennsylvania by the Dutch and Quakers. 

§ 8. Each of these Anglo-American colonies had a governor 


53 6 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 


[Book X. 

Spirit of the Colonists. Their Political Platform. Stamp-Act. 

appointed by the crown, but in other respects there were great 
differences in their charters. The English ministry, accustomed 
to regard them as vassals of the crown, considered that they had 
no political rights but what these charters conferred, and that even 
these were subject to be varied or set aside if the interests of the 
mother country should seem to require it. The colonists naturally 
took a different view, and their Houses of Assembly were fre¬ 
quently at variance with their governors, especially in the Puritan 
States, where the free spirit that made their ancestors flee from 
England more than a century before was as strong as ever. This 
spirit came gradually to actuate the .rest, and notwithstanding 
their differences of origin, they were at this time all united on the 
point of yielding just as much obedience to the mother country as 
they were legally compelled to, and no more, for they had scarcely 
received any government protection in their infancy, and they 
were now strong enough to help themselves. 

§ 9. The war that had just closed had arisen partly out of the 
contests of the American colonies with the French settlements on 
their borders, and had somewhat increased the taxes which were 
then greatly complained of in England. The Grenville ministry, 
to lighten the burden, resolved [April, 1764] to tax the English 
colonies generally, by extending to them some of the stamp duties 
and imports that England had borne ever since the time of Charles 
the Second. The West India colonies paid them readily, ljut the 
American ones absolutely refused, on the just plea that they were 
not allowed a representation in parliament when such burdens were 
imposed. They took the broad ground, and ever maintained it, 
that taxation without representation is tyranny. The ministry used 
force to compel the colonies to submit to the impost; but, after a 
severe struggle with the friends of justice in parliament, the min¬ 
isters were obliged to give way before a threat that all trade 
between the oppressed colonists and the mother country should be 
broken off. The act imposing stamp duties was repealed in March, 
1766, but, to save appearances, an act was passed at the same time 
declaring the power of the parliament to be supreme in all mat¬ 
ters of taxation. 1 

1 When intelligence of the passage of the stamp-act reached the colonists, it was 
everywhere denounced. When the stamps arrived, men appointed to distribute them 
were assaulted. Colonial assemblies, public orators, and the pulpit inveighed against 
the tyrannical measures. In several cities mobs occurred on the day when the law was 


Chapter III.] THE HOUSE OF BRUNSWICK. 537 

Ministerial Changes. Taxation resisted. Bloodshed in Boston. 

§ 10. Ever since the retirement of Lord Bute there had been fre¬ 
quent ministerial changes. Grenville succeeded Bute, the Duke 
of Bedford succeeded Grenville, and the Marquis of Rockingham 
succeeded Bedford, all in the course of little more than two years. 
Pitt, who had been created Earl of Chatham on the occasion, suc¬ 
ceeded Rockingham in 1766, but he was no longer the all-pow¬ 
erful minister that he had been. He was in bad health, his subor¬ 
dinates supported him but feebly, and the opposition were success¬ 
ful in reducing some of the taxes. To make up for this, a new 
scheme for taxing the colonies was put in operation, but Chatham 
had finally quitted office before it was attempted. 

§ 11. After the brief administration of the Duke of Grafton, in 
which a new attempt at colonial taxation w r as begun, Lord North 
came into power [a.d. 1770], and remained in office for twelve 
years. He had what several of the preceding ministers had not, 
the entire confidence of the king, and during much the greater 
part of the time he had also the support of the vast majority of 
the parliament and the nation, -which certainly did not look on 
the colonists as anything else than rebels until their success became 
very decided. From the first this new taxation scheme, like all 
others, was resisted by the colonists, because it was regarded as a 
violation of their sacred rights. No matter how insignificant was 
the impost, it was the same in principle, and for principle they 
sternly contended. Their resistance for a long time consisted 
only in verbal arguments; but when troops were sent to awe and 
subjugate the people, the irritation became so intense that it was 
difficult to keep down insurrection. In March, 1770, a collision 
between the citizens of Boston and the troops there occurred, 
which resulted in the killing of several of the former. The course 
of the colonists in regard to the matter was so wise and moderate 
that it deserved the most tender consideration of a just king and 
sagacious ministry. But these did not understand the Americans, 
and the oppressions were continued. 


to go into operation, and many packages of stamps were seized and burned. In the 
midst of the excitement a congress of delegates from the several colonies met [Oct. 7, 
1765] in the city of New York, and published some able papers setting forth the griev¬ 
ances complained of and petitioning the king for redress. Merchants entered into 
agreements not to import goods from Great Britain, and the people of all classes pre¬ 
pared to sustain them bousing only their own manufactures. This touched the Lon¬ 
don merchants most keenly, and they joined the Americans in petitioning for a repeal 
of the stamp act. 1 he ministry were compelled to listen. 

23* 


538 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book X. 

Rebellious Movements. Boston Punished. Continental Congress and its Acts. 

§ 12. At length the insolence of the commander of a revenue 
cruiser, named Gaspe, in Narraganset Bay, Rhode Island, so pro¬ 
voked the inhabitants, and particularly the navigators of the Bay, 
that a parly of them went down from Providence one night 
[June 9, 1772] and attacked and burned the obnoxious vessel, 
which lay aground. This overt act of rebellion was succeeded at 
near the close of the following year by the destruction of cargoes 
of tea in Boston harbor [Dec. 15,1773], which had been brought 
to the country in the East Lidia- Company’s tt ships, in 
a § 5, P . 500. s p ite of tlae p ro tests of the colonists on account of 
the imposition of a duty on the article. This roused the English 
ministers. By act of parliament the port of Boston was closed and 
the business was transferred to the neighboring town of Salem; 
the House of Assembly was dissolved, and several changes were 
made in the charter of the colony which deprived the people of 
some of the dearest privileges guaranteed by that instrument. At 
the same time troops were sent to support the royal authority under 
General Gage, the commander-in-chief of the British forces in 
America, who was appointed governor of Massachusetts. 

§ 13. The other colonies made common cause with Massachu¬ 
setts, and, on their own authority, and in spite of their governors, 
held a general congress of fifty-one delegates at Philadelphia 
[Sept. 5, 1774], which issued a Declaration of Rights, claiming all 
the privileges of British subjects and stating instances in which 
these had been violated. They declared that “to these grievous 
acts and measures the Americans cannot submit,” and they resolved 
to have no commerce with England until they obtained redress. 
For this purpose a non-importation league, known as the American 
Association, was signed by the delegates of all the colonies repre¬ 
sented. An address to the king embodying the sentiments of the 
Declaration of Rights was voted, as also addresses to the Anglo- 
American colonists, the people of England, and the French Cana¬ 
dians at Quebec. These papers produced a feeling of profound 
respect and sympathy for the colonists everywhere, excepting in 
the minds of the blind ministry and the not very wise king; and 
Lord Chatham b and other leading members of par- 

§io, p. o-u. liament eg p 0use( j their cause and offered much op¬ 
position to the ministerial scheme. 

§ 14. In expectation of a necessity for armed resistance to their 
oppressors, the Americans, during 1774, formed military organiza- 


539 


Chapter III.] THE HOUSE OF BRUNSWICK. 

Minute-men. Skirmishes at Lexington and Concord. Revolution. 

tions, whose members were bound to take the field at a moment’s 
warning. These were called Minute-men. and were drilled for 
service. Gage, who was a judicious commander, knew this, and 
although he had 5,000 regular troops at different points under 
him, he did not think it prudent to interfere with the political 
movements of the people of Massachusetts, who, in the autumn of 
1774, chose delegates to form a Provincial Congress at Cambridge, 
in sight of the British flag in Boston. That Congress made pro¬ 
visions for an army, appointed a commanding general for it, and, 
in fact,*set up an independent government. Gage felt almost 
powerless; for he had seen, on one occasion, the mere rumor 
of British troops having assailed the Americans call together 
nearly 30,000 of the Minute-men of New England. But finally, 
in the spring of 1775, having 3,000 troops in Boston, he resolved 
to take measures to crush the rising rebellion by seizing arms and 
ammunition which he was informed the Americans had collected 
at Concord, a few miles from the city. Troops were sent for the pur¬ 
pose. These were met on the way at Lexington, where a skirmish 
occurred [April 19, 1775], when the first blood was shed in the 
American Revolution. The Minute-men gathered. The troops 
were attacked at Concord, and were driven back to Boston with 
heavy loss. Within ten days after these events an army of 20,000 
Americans were environing Boston, and forming camps and casting 
up fortifications to keep Gage and his troops from leaving that 
peninsula. The other colonists were aroused, and flew to arms. 
The strongholds of Ticonderoga and Crown Point, on Lake Cham¬ 
plain, were seized by the patriots on the 10th of May [1775]; and 
at the middle of June, during a single night, a redoubt was thrown 
up on an eminence near Charlestown, whose cannon commanded 
Boston. Seeing his danger, and being reinforced, Gage sent out 
troops to expel the patriots from that vantage-ground [June 17], 
when the severe battle, resulting in victory for the colonists, 
known as that of Bunker’s Hill, was fought. 

§ 15. Meanwhile the Continental Congress of 1774 a had reassem¬ 
bled [May 10, 1775] at Philadelphia. Already prepa- a § 13 p 538 
rations had been made for armed resistance. A navy 
had been authorized, and Ezekiel Hopkins, of Rhode Island, was 
appointed commander. “We have counted the cost of this con¬ 
test,” said the Congress, “ and find nothing so dreadful as volun¬ 
tary slavery.” They voted to raise an army of 20,000 men; and 


540 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book X. 

Washington in Command. Declaration of Independence. Alliance with France. 

two days before tlie battle of Bunker Hill they appointed George 
Washington a commander-in-chief of all the forces 

§ 32, p. 5-8. ra j ge( j or {. 0 k e raised. They adopted the troops be¬ 
fore Boston as a national force, and there (at Cambridge) Wash¬ 
ington took command of them on the 3d of July. The Congress 
agreed to an act of perpetual union of the colonies, and issued 
paper money. The colonies all regarded the assembly at Phila¬ 
delphia as a general government, and in the space of a few weeks 
after the skirmish at Lexington royal power was virtually at an 
end in all the Anglo-American provinces. Then was begun the 
American War, which lasted seven years. 

§ 16. For nearly a year after the beginning of hostilities the 
American Congress earnestly sought redress of grievances. War, 
and threatened extermination of the liberties of the colonies by 
British and German troops combined, were offered instead. Hope¬ 
less of justice, the colonies, by their representatives, declared [July 
4, 1776] the several provinces free and independent States, with 
the national title of The United States of America. Assuming 
national functions, the Congress sought the aid and alliance of 
European governments, and readily found sympathy. Every one 
of them had felt the haughty power of England in some offensive 
way, and would gladly see that power weakened. France, smart¬ 
ing under the loss of Canada and the humiliation to which she had 
been subjected, and Spain, hoping to recover Gibraltar and Minor¬ 
ca, readily listened to American commissioners, and indirectly 
gave the insurgents secret aid. When its practical sympathy 
could no longer be concealed, France entered into an open alliance 
[February 6, 1778] with the struggling colonists, and sent troops 
and ships to help them ; but Spain reserved her army and navy for 
the defence of her own colonies. Finally, the northern powers of 
Europe confederated [a.d. 1780] in an attempt to force England to 
respect the rights of neutrals. It was a league called an Armed 
Neutrality, which finally led England into a war with a greater 
part of the civilized world; and her commerce was terribly in¬ 
jured by American privateers, which became numerous and active. 
Among the privateersmen, John Paul Jones was the most active, 
and for awhile he kept the seaports of the whole island of Great 
Britain in a state of alarm, as he circumnavigated it and darted 
into harbors here and there, in the year 1779. He once attempted to 
burn the shipping hi Whitehaven; and for a while, in 1779, British 


Chapter III.] THE HOUSE OF BRUNSWICK. 541 

Invasion of Canada. British driven from Boston. Battles North and South. 


a § 39, p. 531. 


commerce was suspended, for a united French and Spanish fleet 
had the command of the British channel. 

§ 17. Whilst Washing-ton kept the British troops shut up in 
Boston during the autumn and winter of 1775-76, a northern 
army, under General Schuyler, invaded Canada. The chief force 
was led by General Montgomery, formerly an officer in the British 
army, who, after capturing Montreal, 11 proceeded to 
besiege Quebec at the close of the year. There he was 
killed [December 81,1775], and his little army was much dispersed. 
Soon afterward [March, 1776] the British troops under General 
Howe were driven out of Boston. They retired to Halifax, and 
then proceeded to get another foothold on the coast. A part of 
them unsuccessfully attempted to take Charleston, in South Caro¬ 
lina, in June; and finally, after a severe battle between the Ameri¬ 
cans and the allied British and German troops, on Long Island 
[August 27,1776], Howe took possession of the city of New York, 
and the greater part of the island on which it stands. The Americans 
made resistance at the northern end of the island, where they had 
a strong work called Fort Washington. Tliis they maintained 
until late in the year, when it was captured, chiefly by German 
troops, after Howe’s army had fought Washington’s at White 
Plains, and compelled him to retire to a range of hills northward. 

§ 18. Soon after this, Washington and his little army crossed 
the Hudson, and fled towards the Delaware River, closely pursued 
by Lord Cornwallis. The Americans crossed the Delaware, and 
then recruited; and recrossing on the night of Christmas [1776], 
fell upon and vanquished a body of Germans at Trenton, in New 
Jersey. After a severe battle with Cornwallis, at Princeton, a few 
days afterward [January 3, 1777], Washington retired to the hill 
country of Eastern New Jersey for the winter. 

§ 19. The British ministry planned a campaign for 1777 for 
the seizure of the Hudson River and Lake Champlain. By so doing, 
and holding a line from New York to Montreal, it was expected 
to sever New England from the rest of the Union, and so produce 
a fatal weakness. Sir Henry Clinton, commanding at New York, 
was to penetrate the country northward, and Sir John Burgoyne 
was to penetrate it southward,-from the St. Lawrence, and meet his 
coadjutor. This was attempted. The British had learned by 
sad experience the folly of the boast of one of their officers, that 
with a company of grenadiers he could put a whole army of 


542 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book X. 

Northern New York invaded. Battles of Brandywine and Saratoga. 

Americans to flight, and acted more discreetly. Burgoyne, with a 
motley army of 7,000 British regulars and Germans, 3,000 Cana¬ 
dians, and a body of Indians, moved cautiously forward. He 
captured Ticonderoga,* on Lake Champlain, in July; 
* § 14, p. 5 ,j 8. j n two severe battles, one at Stillwater, and the 
other at Saratoga, on the Upper Hudson, in the autumn, he was 
defeated, and he and his whole army were made [Oct. 17,1 ^ 77] 
prisoners of war. General Gates, who had been an officer in the 
British army, commanded the Americans on this occasion. 

§ 20. In the mean time Washington had been contesting with 
the British under General Howe, in Pennsylvania. A severe 
battle was fought on the Brandywine Creek [Sept. 11, 1777], in 
which Lafayette, a young French officer, bore a conspicuous part, 
and was wounded. Washington fell back toward Philadelphia, 
and again fought Howe at Germantown. There the Americans 
were defeated. Howe took possession of Philadelphia, and 
Washington went into winter quarters at Valley Forge, a dreary 
region in the interior, where his army suffered dreadfully. 

§ 21. The surrender of Burgoyne produced a profound sensation 
in Europe. The Americans were applauded for their prowess. 
The French government hastened to acknowledge the indepen¬ 
dence of the United States, and form an alliance with them, with 
the hope of gaining an advantage over England. England pon¬ 
dered upon the necessity of making peace with her revolted 
colonies, so as to save her own strength. Many of her statesmen 
and soldiers began to think the contest hopeless; and the Duke of 
Richmond, in the House of Lords, moved an address to the king 
recommending peace, even at the price of conceding the indepen¬ 
dence of the colonies. The Earl of Chatham arose from his sick¬ 
bed to oppose this motion. He wished the Americans to have 
justice, but he would not consent to a dismemberment of the em¬ 
pire. While speaking vehemently against the motion, as extorted 
by an unworthy fear of France, he fell down in a fit and died four 
days afterward. Chatham’s views were in accordance with a 
number of public bodies, and they raised several regiments for the 
service; but the city of London, under the influence 

b § 4, p. 5o4. refused to do aught against the Americans. 

Commissioners were appointed to treat for peace; but as the Ame¬ 
ricans refused to negotiate except on the basis of their indepen¬ 
dence, the war went on. A French fleet came to help them. The 


543 


Chapter III.] THE HOUSE OF BRUNSWICK. 

• Operations North and South. Surrender of Cornwallis. End of the War. 

British army left Philadelphia in haste, and fled across New Jersey. 
Washington pursued, and at Monmouth, w r ell on toward Raritan 
Bay, the two forces had a severe battle on the 28th of June. That 
night the weary troops lay upon their arms. The British stole 
away in the darkness and escaped. 

§ 22. The Americans were inspirited by the French alliance, 
and after the battle of Monmouth, the war was carried on upon 
a more extended scale. There w T as a large party in the country 
who adhered to the crown, and were ever ready to assist the 
British against the patriots. Availing themselves of these mal- 
• contents, the British officers made strong efforts in 1779 and 1780 
to bring the Carolinas and Georgia under royal rule. These 
efforts were continued in 1781, when some of the severer 
battles of the war were fought in that region. But they 

failed, and Cornwallis, with the British troops, went into 
Virginia, and established a fortified camp on the York River, at 
Yorktown. There he was attacked by allied American and 
French forces—the former under Washington, and the latter 
under Rochambeau—and also a French fleet under Be Grasse 
He was compelled to surrender on the 19th of October, 1781, 
wdien the British ministers and people were satisfied that a further 
continuance of the war would be useless. Hostilities soon after¬ 
ward ceased. Lord North retired from the premiership early in 
1782, and his successor, Lord Shelbourne, caused a successful nego¬ 
tiation for peace. A preliminary treaty was signed in November, 
1782, and the definitive treaty was signed on the Bel of September, 
the next year. In November following the last of the British 
army left the United States. 

§ 23. It was only in the contests in America that England had 
such ill success; and to this the vast extent of the country contri¬ 
buted as much or more than the skill or want of skill of the 
generals on either side. Though the contest with other powers 
was severe, and opened with an unsatisfactory action with the 
French oif Brest just after the declaration of war, in the spring of 
1778, the British fleet had its triumphs to show, and all the hostile 
navies suffered more than it did. 1 The Dutch were defeated on the 
Doggerbank by Parker, and had their ports blockaded, to the 
destruction of their commerce. The Spaniards almost ruined their 
army and navy in a fruitless siege of Gibraltar, which w as gal- 

i They had 171 ships of war captured or destroyed ; the British lost but 88. 


544 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book X. 

Terms of Peace. American Loyalists. Government in India. 

lantly held against them and the French for more than three years 
by General Eliott. The French fleet, which had captured some of 
the British West India islands, and which had caused the surrender 
of Cornwallis by its effective co-operation with Washington and 
Rochambeau, ft was totally defeated by Admiral Rod- 
a§ 32, p.543. on the 12t h of April, 1782, whilst treaties of 

peace were under negotiation. This victory made the terms of 
the treaty less burdensome to the English than they would other¬ 
wise have been. 

§ 24. Peace, as we have seen, was at length concluded at Paris, 
in September, 1788. The independence of the American colonies 
was acknowledged, and many of the gains of the war that was 
ended in 1763 b were lost. But Gibraltar was re- 
b § 4, P . 534. tained , even at the ris k 0 f prolonging the war. The 

popular feeling in the United States against the Tories, as the 
loyalists were called, was very bitter for a while, and families, to 
the number of 100,000 souls, fled from the country. . After a 
temporary shelter in Nova Scotia, many of these received free 
grants of fertile lands in Canada, between Lakes Ontario, Erie, 
and Huron, with arms, stores, and provisions, until the time that 
they could bring the wilderness into cultivation. As they had 
fought to prevent the dismemberment of the State, they were com¬ 
monly known as the “ U. E. (Unity of the Empire) Loyalists.” 
Several Indian tribes, compromised in the same way, were simi¬ 
larly treated, and the descendants of both races still hold the 
lands assigned. 

§ 25. During the whole of the American war the English pos¬ 
sessions in India were ably and rigorously governed by Warren 
Hastings, a man not very scrupulous as to the means employed 
in securing wealth and power. Hyder Ali, the most active of the 
native princes, who tried to preserve his country from the grasp 
of British avarice, was repulsed in several attacks; and Sir Ed¬ 
ward Hughes inflicted several severe defeats on the French and 
Dutch in the Indian seas. After his return to Europe, Hastings 
was impeached on charges of misgovernment and cruelty, which 
were well sustained; but, after a trial that lasted seven years, he 
was, as a necessity of State policy, not only acquitted [a.d. 1795] 
but allowed a pension. 

§ 26. While the war was raging, England had serious domestic 
troubles, which at one time bore an alarming aspect. Parliament 


545 


Chatter III.] THE HOUSE OF BRUNSWICK. 

Biots in London. Invasion threatened. Ireland. The Younger Pitt. 

repealed some of the harsh laws against the Roman Catholics, 
when a flame of intense bigotry burst out all over the realm, and 
the cry of “No Popery!.” was heard on every hand. Riots oc¬ 
curred in many places. There was a fearful one in London in 
June, 1780, during which a vast amount of property and many 
lives were destroyed. At about the same time the fear of a 
French invasion of Ireland induced the ministry to call for volun¬ 
teers in that country, and full 80,000 were soon enrolled. The 
officers were mostly Protestants and men of property, and the rank 
and file were nearly all Roman Catholics. Having arms in their 
hands, they demanded the concession of rights and privileges 
which had long been denied them, with a haughtiness that pro¬ 
voked fierce indignation. The government was now compelled 
to listen and to yield, and the harshness of the penal laws for 
Ireland was much softened. There was a triumph gained, at the 
same time, for the Irish parliament, which had hitherto been 
allowed to discuss such matters only as the English government 
had already sanctioned. This was a most galling vassalage, and 
the right to exercise it was now formally renounced. But Protes¬ 
tant intolerance confined the conceded privileges to the Protestant 
gentry, for they alone were permitted to sit in parliament, and 
they never showed any desire to use their new powers for the 
benefit of the great body of the people by whose help they had 
gained them. 

§ 27. The peace concluded in 1768, though necessary, was not 
popular, and Lord Shelburne was obliged to resign. By a shame¬ 
ful coalition with his old opponent Fox, Lord North again came 
into power in April, 1783 ; but before the end of the year they 
were both dismissed by the king, and the premiership a g 10 p ^ 
was given to William Pitt, the second son of Lord 
Chatham, a who governed the country for eighteen years—a much 
longer period than any minister since Walpole. 

§ 28. Though only twenty-four years of age when he took office, 
Pitt displayed consummate ability in dealing with a discontented 
people and an exhausted treasury. He at once set about reducing 
expenditures, abolishing needless pensions, and making treaties 
of commerce with the United States and other countries. He 
also attempted to effect a reform in parliament, but it was not 
then felt to be necessary, and his scheme was rejected, as was also 
a project for fortifications along the coast, to which he had been 


546 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book X. 

Pitt’s Administration. Democracy in France. 

led by recollections of the humiliation of 1779. a But though 
thus defeated, his influence was not shaken; and 
a §16, p. 540. wheil} i n 1788, it became necessary to prepare a Re¬ 
gency Bill, in consequence of the mental malady of the king, his 
propositions were preferred to those of the opposition. The 
king’s opportune recovery, however, put a stop to the matter. 

§ 29. Under Pitt’s care the army and navy attained to something 
of their former strength, and by showing himself prepared for war 
he compelled the Spaniards to withdraw some groundless claims 
on a part of the west coast of America (California), which had 
been taken possession of by the celebrated navigator Captain 
Cook. As years passed on the steady increase of trade rendered 
taxation less burdensome, and a scheme was begun in 1780, under 
the name of the Sinking Fund, which it was hoped would in time 
extinguish the national debt. This had already decreased 
£10,000,000 ($50,000,000) under his management; but an event 
soon occurred that baffled the calculations of all the statesmen of 
Europe— the breaking out of the French Revolution. 

§ 80. The moral and material aid which France gave to the 
Americans for the purpose of injuring England, produced fruit 
quite the reverse of what the French court had anticipated. There 
was at that time an absolute despotism in France. The distress 
caused by the wars and extravagance of Louis the Fourteenth and 
Fifteenth was very great 5 but no one ventured to complain of the 
taxes or the extraordinary privileges granted to the nobility and 
clergy. But when the French officers and soldiers returned from 
America, filled with republican ideas and aspirations for inde¬ 
pendence of thought and action which they had imbibed there, 
they began to question the right of a few to oppress the many. 
New ideas quickly pervaded the public mind and stirred the pub¬ 
lic heart. In this movement Lafayette b was con- 
b ^ 20, p ‘ 54 ~' spicuous. Very soon the rumblings of the volcano 
of passion in the bosom of society were heard on every hand. 
Legislators assumed to be responsible to the people, and the Par¬ 
liament of Paris, which for hundreds of years had been a mere 
court for registering royal edicts, now [a.d. 1787] refused to do so, 
and in consequence the new and grievous taxes which the war had 
rendered necessary could not be levied. 

§ 31. To remedy this the States-General, a body that, had not 
met for nearly two hundred years, was called together; and it, like the 


Chapter III.] THE HOUSE OF BRUNSWICK. 547 

The French Revolution. French Egotism. English Revolutionists. 

Long Parliament,* soon took all power into its own hands. In a 

short time the king (Louis the Sixteenth) was in 

i., . J a § 27, p. 411. 

reality a prisoner in his palace, and the representa¬ 
tives of the people proceeded to make society as level as possible. 
The state prison of the Bastille, which carried in its history the 
ideal of a tyrannical despotism, was assailed and finally pulled 
down. The privileges of the nobility and clergy were abolished, 
and the church property was seized. Instead of assisting to meet 
the storm, the king’s brothers and many of his nobles had fled 
across the frontier, and were trying to induce foreign sovereigns 
to take up their cause and restore the former order of things. 
Under Pitt’s guidance England kept aloof; but the Emperor of 
Austria (who was the brother of Marie Antoinette, the queen of 
France) and the King of Prussia entered into a treaty for the pur¬ 
pose at Pilnitz, in 1791. The treaty became known, and brought 
matters to a crisis in France. In the war that at once followed the 
French forces were at first unsuccessful. This, by Robespierre and 
other self-chosen leaders of the Paris mob, was declared to be 
owing to treachery, and the most frightful massacres of imprisoned 
nobles and priests followed. The unfortunate king, who had in 
vain accepted constitution after constitution as it was offered to 
him, was now deposed, and a republic established. He was soon 
afterward tried on charges of inviting foreigners to invade 
France, and beheaded. That was in 1793. His queen soon met 
the same fate. The English ambassador had been already with¬ 
drawn, and the Convention (such was the name taken by the new 
rulers of France) now proclaimed war with England. 

§ 32. Even before this the Convention had in reality declared 
war with all existing governments, by voting that they would give 
assistance to every nation that wished to “recover its liberty.” 
This invitation to rebellion was not much regarded on the Conti¬ 
nent, but there was a democratic party in England who had sym¬ 
pathized with the French from the very first, and who now showed 
such unmistakable disaffection that severe measures were resort¬ 
ed to by the government to restrain them. They were restrained, 
but not without danger to the peace of the country, for at one 
time revolution seemed imminent, and England, instead of being 
the prey of the revolutionary party in France, proved their firm¬ 
est opponent. 

§ 33. On the breaking out of the war, English troops were sent 


548 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book X. 

England and France at War. Bonaparte’s Scheme of Conquest 

to Flanders, where for two campaigns they contended stubbornly 
but unsuccessfully against the overwhelming numbers of the 
French, and were then withdrawn, to be employed against the 
colonies of the enemy. Pondicherry, the Cape of Good Hope, 
Trinidad, and many places of minor importance fell into their 
hands. In Europe the war on land was little else than a series of 
triumphs for the French, who, in the course of the nine years that 
it lasted [a.d. 1793-1802], overran Holland, Germany, and Italy, 
overthrew the King of Naples and the Pope, made war on the 
Turks, and forced the Northern powers and Spain into hostilities 
with England, from which they suffered severely. 

§ 34. Several private men carved their way to fame and fortune 
in these campaigns, but no one was so successful in this as Napo¬ 
leon Bonaparte, a young Corsican adventurer, wlrn was ever as 
ready to fight against the people as for them, if his interest could 
be thereby served. His pre-eminent ability as a soldier roused the 
jealousy of the Directory, the form the government had then as¬ 
sumed ; but they dared not attempt to suppress him. Therefore, 
in pursuance of a scheme for Eastern conquest, which, in his ambi¬ 
tion to become a second Alexander, he had conceived, he was 
sent to Egypt, where he made great slaughter of the undisciplined 
Turks and Mamelukes, and thence marched into Syria, where 
lie sustained his first reverse [a.d. 1799] before the walls of St. 

Jean d’Acre (famous in the days of the Crusades) 4 
a § 13, p. 149. from gir gidney Smithj an English naval officer, at 

the head of a few British seamen and marines. Though the 
French, from the destruction of their navy, could not reach India, 
they induced Tippoo Saib, the son of Hyder Ali, b to 
b § 25, p. 544. take armS) by the prom i se of aid that was never 

sent; but that prince was defeated and killed at Seringapatam, 
and his dominions were divided among other native princes who 
had refused to listen to the French emissaries. 

§ 35. The successes of the French republicans were balanced 
by several terrible defeats received from England, at sea, by them 
and their allies. Lord Howe gained a famous victory over the 
French fleet on the 1st of June, 1794; Sir John Jervis defeated 
the Spaniards off Cape St. Vincent, and Admiral Duncan the 
Dutch at Camperdown, both in the year 1797—a year also mem¬ 
orable for a mutiny in the English fleet at the Nore, which sub¬ 
sided on the redress of some real grievances of which the sailors 


Chapter III.] THE HOUSE OF BRUNSWICK. 


540 


The Republic overthrown. Insurrection in Ireland. Pitt resigns. 

had to complain. In 1798, Sir Horatio Nelson, by the destruc¬ 
tion of a powerful navy near the Nile, reduced the French army 
that had invaded Egypt virtually to the condition of prisoners, 
though their general, Bonaparte, contrived to escape some time 
after, and, returning to France, overthrew the Direc- ^ ^ 
tory, a and placed himself at the head of affairs, with 
the title of First Consul. Though stiH engaged in w T ar, he put an 
end to the anarchy that had so long prevailed in France; and 
when he had apparently established a settled government, Eng¬ 
land made peace with him, recognizing the French republic [a.d. 
1802], but still liberally supporting the thousands of emigrants 
who had fled to her shores on its establishment.. 

§ 36. During several years of the war the French had threatened 
the invasion of . England, but they never attempted it, and if they 
had, there is no reason for supposing that they w r ould have met 
with many partisans in that country. But the case* was different 
in Ireland, where then* coming was eagerly looked for by many 
who had imbibed republican principles. There was a stronger 
bond of unity between the French and the Irish, in their religious 
agreement, both being Roman Catholic, which had been intensi¬ 
fied by Protestant intolerance and oppression. But the English 
navy either captured or dispersed more than one expedition sent 
with men and money to Ireland. In spite of this, a revolutionary 
body, styling themselves “United Irishmen,” began an insurrection 
in that country in the spring of the year 1798, which soon spread 
over the whole island, and w r as not suppressed without a lament¬ 
able amount of bloodshed. This, after a time, led to the union 
of Great Britain and Ireland, in 1801, which was the last conspi¬ 
cuous event of Pitt’s administration.. He had been obliged to 
promise the Protestant Dublin parliament great concessions, or the 
measure would never have been accomplished. He also wished 
to conciliate the Romanists, and, hoping for liberality among his 
peers ecpial to his own, he had led them to believe that the Impe¬ 
rial Parliament w'ould treat them more favorably than the Irish 
one had done. He found himself deceived in this, and with a 
sense of honor not always shown by statesmen, he resigned office, 
much against the will of the king. He was succeeded by Mr. Ad¬ 
dington, who had long been Speaker of the House of Commons, 
and who concluded the famous peace of Amiens, on the 27th of 
March, 1802, which seemed to promise a permanent peace in Eu- 


550 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book X. 

A Delusive Peace. Napoleon threatens England. Pitt recalled to office. 

rope. Then Englishmen, who had been so long excluded from 
the Continent, flocked across the Channel. At the beginning of 
June full 6,000 British subjects were in Paris. Fox and other 
English statesmen attended Bonaparte’s levees, and the excess of 
friendship exhibited became ridiculous. 1 But this was only a 
truce, and the war-broke out again in 1803. 

§ 37. The British national debt had now risen to alarming di¬ 
mensions; and to lessen the burden of taxation the new minister 
greatly reduced the army and navy. The First Consul, eagerly 
watching for an opportunity to break the truce, was now styled 
the Emperor Napoleon. He seemed in earnest in his threats of 
invasion of England. A large army was encamped 

a § p ' 7 ' at Boulogne, ft and apparently only waited for the 
French and Spanish fleets to unite in the British Channel for the 
attempt to be made. Again the navy frustrated the plan. The 
combined fleets were defeated at Trafalgar by Lord Nelson, who 
fell in the action [a.d. 1805]; and to the end of the war the French 
ports were so closely blockaded that all thoughts of invasion be¬ 
came idle, particularly as 400,000 volunteers had appeared in an¬ 
swer to the threat, and some part of Pitt’s plan of fortification had 
been carried out. 2 This volunteer force allowed British troops to 
be sent on the Continent in much larger numbers than had ever 
been done before. 

§ 38. Mr. Pitt, when he came again into power, had induced 
Austria and Russia to take up arms against France, but they 
were defeated at Austerlitz [Dec. 2, 1805], and his own death fol¬ 
lowed quickly on the receipt of the news. A coalition ministry 
succeeded him, to which its opponents gave, in derision, the name 
of “ All the Talents.” Several expeditions that he had sent out 
were unsuccessful, though the Cape of Good Hope was again 
captured, and General Stuart, with a force from Sicily, gained a 

1 Gilray, the eminent caricaturist, ridiculed this in a print representing a lean man 
(France) embracing and kissing a very fat woman (England). It was entitled “The 
First Kiss this Ten Years.” The Frenchman says : “ Madame, permittez me to pay my 
profound esteem to your engaging person, and to seal on your divine lips my everlast¬ 
ing attachment.” The fat Englishwoman replies: “Monsieur, you are truly a well- 
bred gentleman; and though you make me blush, yet you kiss so delicately that I 
cannot refuse you, though I was sure you would deceive me again.” On the wall just 
behind there were framed profiles of King George and Bonaparte scowling at each 

other. 

2 The Royal Military Canal, and the Martello Towers on the Kent and Sussex coasts, 
were constructed at this time. 


551 


Chapter III.] THE HOUSE OF BRUNSWICK. 

Abolition of the Slave-Trade. Seizure of the Danish Fleet. 

decided victory over the French at Maida in 1806. Fox, Pitt’s 
old opponent, though not nominally the premier, was the leading 
man. He had ever expressed great regard for the French nation, 
and for Bonaparte in particular; and he now opened negotiations 
for peace, but they were broken off by his death. The formal 
abolition of the slave-trade was the act of the ministry of the 
“ Talents,” though slavery itself endured nearly thirty years longer 
in the British possessions. The Duke of Portland next became 
premier [a.d. 1807], and a vigorous prosecution of the war was 
resolved on. 

§ 39. The first blow was struck in an unexpected quarter. Na¬ 
poleon had defeated both the Prussians and the Russians, but he 
felt the want of a fleet, as his own was shut up in his harbors, and 
was hardly safe there. A secret treaty was therefore made, by 
which the rulers of Russia and Prussia agreed to compel the Danes 
to place their really powerful fleet at his disposal. The English 
ministry, on learning this, sent an expedition to Copenhagen, 
which offered to take charge of the Danish ships, so as to preserve 
them from the hands of the French, with the promise of restoring 
them at the end of the war. The Danes, who had had their fleet 
destroyed by Nelson a few years before [a.d. 1801], would not 
trust the English, believing they would suffer the fate of the lamb 
that put itself undei; the protection of the wolf. The consequence 
was, their capital was besieged [a.d. 1807] and taken, and their 
navy seized and taken to England to keep it out of the hands of 
Napoleon. This outrage was strongly condemned by every right- 
minded person. 

§ 40. The Danish, Dutch, and French colonies were next assailed 
by the English, and soon subdued, the most important conquest 
being the island of Java, which was accomplished by an expedi¬ 
tion from India, where the British power was now firmly estab¬ 
lished. This had been in a great part the work of Sir Arthur 
Wellesley (afterward the great Duke of Wellington), a young 
general who had gained the battles of Assaye and Argaum in 
1803, and who was now about to undertake a still more arduous 
task in Europe. 

§ 41. Napoleon was now wielding power with a high hand. 
He had by this time not only made himself Emperor of the French 
and King of Italy and Protector of the Confederation of the Rhine, 
but had given thrones to three of his brothers, and dukedoms and 


552 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book X 

Napoleon’s Power in Spain. The English in Spain. Wellington Victorious. 

principalities in conquered countries to his generals and marshals. 
He now turned his eyes on Spain and Portugal, and resolved to 
add those countries also to his empire, lie had taken advantage 
of dissensions in the Spanish court to get the royal family into his 
power, when he at once sent a large army into Spain, and bestowed 
the crown on his brother Joseph. At the same time his troops 
marched into Portugal, and the royal family there also forsook 
the country and took refuge in Brazil, one of its colonial posses¬ 
sions. But, though thus abandoned by their rulers, neither the 
Spaniards nor the Portuguese were inclined to submit to the 
French. They made application to England, where popular feel¬ 
ing ran strongly in their favor, and it was determined to send 
them help. Thus the famous Peninsular war began, in 1808. 

§ 42. The first efforts made were but partially successful. In 
August, 1808, Sir Arthur Wellesley landed in Portugal, and de¬ 
feated the French at Vimeira; and soon afterward Sir John Moore 
advanced into Spain, but not being joined by the Spaniards, as had 
been expected, he w r as obliged to retreat, and though he gained 
a victory at Corunna, he was killed in the action, and his troops 
returned to England. In 1809, Sir Arthur advanced into Spain, 
and gained the battle of Talavera ; but the French had three aimies 
in the country, each more numerous than his own, and he was 
obliged to remain on the defensive whilst they scattered the many 
ill-disciplined bodies of Spaniards. 

§ 43. In 1810, the French, led by one of their most renowned 
captains, Massena, advanced in overwhelming force against Sir 
Arthur (now Lord Wellington since the battle of Talavera), when 
he retired slowly before them into the strong lines of Torres 
Vedras, near Lisbon, v T hich they dared not attack. In 1811 he 
issued forth, defeating the French at Fuentes-d’Onore, and thence¬ 
forth he never returned to Portugal, nor ceased his victorious 
march towards France. This occupied a period of three years, 
in which he gained the great battles of Salamanca, Vittoria, 
Orthez, and Toulouse, besides victoriously sustaining a desperate 
six days’ combat among the Pyrenees, and capturing Ciudad 
Rodrigo, Pampeluna, St. Sebastian, and numerous other strong 
]daces. Under Lord Wellington’s command the Spaniards and 
Portuguese fought bravely beside the British, and the whole 
formed an army with which, as he himself said, “ he could go 
anywhere, and do anything.” Nothing could resist their steady 


553 


Chapter III.] THE HOUSE OF BRUNSWICK. 

Progress of the War. King Insane. Regent. Impressments. 

march, and before the close of the year 1813 they stood triumphant 
on the “sacred soil of France.” 

§ 44. During the progress of the Peninsular war many events 
of importance had occurred that demand notice. In 1809 a pow¬ 
erful expedition was sent against Walcheren, in the expectation 
that the Dutch would rise against their French masters; but it 
failed to effect anything of consequence, and the loss of life from 
sickness was very great. Soon after this the Duke of Portland 
died, and was succeeded as premier by Spencer Perceval, who fol¬ 
lowed his warlike policy, in spite of much murmuring from the 
opposition. In 1810 the king became hopelessly in- ^ 
sane, ft and henceforth passed his life in retirement. ’ P ’ ' 
His eldest son, George, a profligate and an unprincipled man, 
nearly fifty years of age, now administered the government as 
Regent, to which office he was appointed on the 5th day of Feb¬ 
ruary, 1811. He had long lived on bad terms with his father, and 
it was expected that he would choose his ministers from the Whig 
party; but owing to dissensions among them he did not do so. 
Mr. Perceval was assassinated in 1812 by a man named Belling¬ 
ham, who conceived that he had a grievance against the govern¬ 
ment, when an attempt was again made to form a Whig minis¬ 
try. It did not succeed, and Lord Liverpool, a well-known 
diplomatist, became premier, and held the post for many years. 

§ 45. From the very beginning of the French Rev- 

s ° ® «> § 31 p. 546. 

olution b there had been disputes between England 

and the few powers that remained neutral, because of the haughty 
pretensions and practices of the former as the alleged “ Mistress of 
the Seas.” Under government sanction the commanders of her 
ships of war claimed and exercised the right of searching the ships 
of neutrals, not only for enemies’ goods, but for English sailors, 
who, when found, were carried off to serve in the royal navy. The 
theory of the British government was that no subject could ex¬ 
patriate himself, and could be claimed as a subject wherever 
found. Upon this plea they seized and impressed English seamen 
in-other service into that of the royal navy, and often took many 
who were not English. 

§ 46. As the war went on the only neutrals left were the Ameri¬ 
cans, whose carrying trade became large and profitable. It was 
continually interfered with by British cruisers, who took scores of 
men from American merchant ships under pretence that they were 
24 


554 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 


[Book X. 

English Aggressions. Americans retaliate. Indians incited to War. 

English deserters. The practice caused great irritation in the 
United States, and the government sent out men-of-war to protect 
the merchantmen. A crisis soon came. A British ship of war 
fired upon and forcibly searched [June 22, 1807] the American 
frigate Chesapeake, off the coast of Virginia, and carried away 
four seamen claimed to be English subjects and deserters. It was 
afterwards proven that three of the four were Americans. The 
outrage aroused the nation, and the President issued a proclama¬ 
tion [July, 1807] ordering all British armed vessels to leave the 
waters of the United States immediately, and forbidding any 
to enter them until full satisfaction for the insult should be 
made. This was tardily given by a declaration, more than four 
years afterward, that the act was unauthorized by the British 
government. 

§ 47. Meanwhile the British and French governments, like des¬ 
perate gamesters, played with the world’s commerce, peace, and 
prosperity, in efforts to injure each other. By British “ Orders in 
Council,” and Napoleon’s “ Decrees,” ports were declared block¬ 
aded, commerce was broken up, and the shipping business of the 
Americans was reduced to a coast trade. The government adopted 
the retaliatory measure of non-intercourse a as a means 

§ 13, p. o38. ^ obtaining just action on the part of the belliger¬ 
ents, and at times it seemed to be effectual. But both legislation 
and diplomacy failed, and the British continued to search Ameri¬ 
can vessels, and impress seamen found on board of them into the 
royal service. Intense irritation was the consequence, and a hot 
war spirit spread over the land. It was kept in abeyance, how¬ 
ever, to the dictates of prudence, until, in the year 1811, it was 
found that British emissaries, under the sanction of British colo¬ 
nial officers in Canada, and the interest of British fur-traders, were 
exciting the Indians of the Northwest against the American settle¬ 
ments beyond the Ohio river. A confederation of Indian tribes, 
for the purpose of exterminating these frontier settlers, was 
a-forming when it was effectually broken up by the prompt action 
of the Governor of the Indian Territory, General Harrison. He 
was informed of a gathering of hostile Indians near the Tippe¬ 
canoe creek, and marched a small force to the neighborhood. The 
Indians attacked him [Nov. 6, 1811], when he defeated, dispersed, 
and punished them. This state of things caused an immense pres¬ 
sure upon the government in favor of war, from the West and 


Chapter III.] THE HOUSE OF BRUNSWICK. 555 

War against England declared. Invasion of Canada. War on Land and Water. 

South, but the people of New England opposed the fiery zeal that 
sought to plunge the nation into war. The government yielded, 
however, and formally declared war against Great Britain on the 
19th of June, 1812. 

§ 48. The first step taken by the Americans was as unwise as it 
was disastrous. They invaded Canada on its western border, led 
by General Hull, w here they were met, driven back, and the whole 
army was captured by British regulars and descendants of the 
“ U. E. Loyalists,” a under General Brock, on the 16th n 

J ’ 7 a § 24, p. 544. 

of August, 1812. Another attempt to invade Canada 
on the Niagara frontier, in October following, was unsuccessful 
and almost as disastrous. The little American navy, meanwhile, 
had been winning honors and respect by several important victo¬ 
ries on the ocean. 

§ 49. In the year 1813, nearly the whole northern frontier along 

the lakes, from Detroit to Ogdensburg, on the St. Lawrence, became 

a theatre of hostilities, with varying fortunes for each party. The 

young men in the great valleys beyond the Alleghany mountains 

flocked to the standards of local leaders in great numbers, resolved 

to win back what Hull had lost. There were stirring movements 

in the Northwest all summer, and early in the autumn the whole 

country was thrilled with joy because of a victory won [Sept. 10, 

1813] on Lake Erie, by a squadron under Commodore Perry, over 

a squadron under Commodore Barclay. This seemed to atone for 

the disasters experienced by the Americans at Frenchtown, a few 

months before. The victory was followed by another on the river 

Thames, in Canada, won by Harrison b over British 

’ ’ b § 47, p . 554. 

and Indians under Proctor and Tecumtha, when all 

c § 4o, p. 555. 

that Hull had lost® was recovered. Late in the year 
a force under General Wilkinson went down the St. Lawrence in 
boats, intending to attack Montreal. d The expedi- 

° . . d § P* 541. 

ticn was unsuccessful, and, after an indecisive battle 
on the Canada side of the St. Lawrence [Nov. 11, 1813], the 
American army w'ent into winter quarters in Northern New York. 
Meanwhile General Jackson was carrying on a successful war 
against the Creek Indians in Alabama, w r ho were allies of the 
British, which resulted in their utter prostration in the spring of 
1814. 

§ 50. During 1813, the American navy and privateers were very 
active. The British gained an important victory on the 1st of 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 


556 


[Book X. 


Wellington’s Veterans in America. Battle of New Orleans. Peace. 

June, by the capture of the Chesapeake; they also destroyed Amer¬ 
ican shipping in the Delaware, and ravaged the coasts of Chesa¬ 
peake Bay and Virginia, from Havre de Grace, at the mouth of 
the Susquehanna River, to Hampton Roads, at the mouth of the 
James. They were repulsed in an attempt to seize Norfolk. 

§ 51. The career of Napoleon having been checked by the 
Allied Powers in Europe, at the beginning of 1814, the British 
were enabled to send malty of Wellington’s a veterans 
a § 43, p. 55~. ^ America in the spring of that year. 1 Severe bat¬ 
tles were fought on the Niagara frontier in the summer, with not 
very decisive results ; and early in the autumn Sir George Prevost 
advanced from Canada to attack the land and naval forces of the 
Americans on and in the vicinity of Lake Champlain. A very 
severe battle was fought at Plattsburgh, by both arms of the ser¬ 
vice, on the 11th of September, 1813, where the British were re¬ 
pulsed and driven back to Canada. In the mean time a British 
force under General Ross invaded Maryland, burnt the city of 
Washington [Aug. 24], the capital of the United States, after a 
battle four miles from the city, and in September attempted to 
capture Baltimore. Then the British were repulsed [Sept. 14], and 
Ross was killed, Their shipping had, during the whole season, 
greatly harassed the seaports of New England, and in August 
bombarded Stonington, on Long Island Sound. They were repuls¬ 
ed [Aug. 12, 1814], and left the waters. 

§52. In the autumn of 1814, General Jackson b was busy in the 
defence of the region of the Gulf of Mexico; and in 
§ 49, p. oo5. 2sf 0 y em ber Be was called to New Orleans, then threat¬ 
ened by a force of British veterans. He collected troops there as 
rapidly as possible, and with about three thousand men he fought 
and defeated a much larger number under General Pakenham 
(who was killed), a short distance below New Orleans, on the 8th 
of January, 1815. Before this battle, commissioners to treat for 
peace had finished a successful negotiation at Ghent [Dec. 24, 
1814], in Belgium, c thenew r sof which reached Amer- 

• S 7 p 208 J7 ° 

’ " ica early in February, when hostilities ceased. This 

contest with Great Britain has ever been regarded by the Americans 
as their second war for independence, inasmuch as it established 
the character of the government and people for power in diplo¬ 
macy and war, developed its multifarious resources, and gave the 
republic a high rank in the family of nations. 


557 


Chapter III.] THE HOUSE OF BRUNSWICK. 

War for the Bourbons. Napoleon’s Successes, Reverses, and Fall. 

§ 53. The war of the Allies a with France had been originally 
undertaken for the restoration of the Bourbons, and ^ 
the members of that family had found shelter first ° ’ P ' °° ’ 
with one continental State and then with another, but they had 
now for many years been collected in England. In the course of 
the War opinion changed greatly as to the propriety of foreigners 
forcing rulers on an unwilling people, and had Napoleon put any 
limit to his ambition, and his hatred to England as the chief obsta¬ 
cle in his way to universal empire, the Bourbons would probably 
have been abandoned for the sake of peace. Most of the con¬ 
tinental powers were certainly willing to do so, and England, 
which erroneously attributed the loss of her American colonies 
mainly to help given by France, had no reason to continue the war 
merely for the sake of the Bourbons, though her hospitality to 
them was afforded as freely as ever. But Napoleon’s career of 
wonderful success seems to have disordered his understanding, 
and he obstinately courted his own ruin. His success against the 
Austrians in 1809 had enabled him to send those vast armies into 
Spain that reduced Wellington to the defensive: b but „ 

1 ° ’ b § 42, p . 552. 

they were almost destroyed in the course of the two 
following years; and when he should have replaced them [a.d. 
1812] he failed to do so, and thus really abandoned the contest. 
This was because he now chose to engage in a war with Russia, 
hitherto his ally, which demanded all his strength. It failed 
miserably, with greater loss of life than any expedition of modern 
times. 

§ 54. This disaster raised all Germany against Napoleon, and 
though he fought desperately he was driven out of the country in 
1813. Early in the following year, with Wellington in the south 
of France, and Russians, Prussians, and Austrians in possession of 
Paris, he was obliged to abdicate, and then, as the French people 
seemed to desire it, the Bourbons were restored by the victors. 
At the instance of Alexander of Russia, the dethroned ruler was 
allowed to retain the imperial title, and was sent to reside at 
Elba, a small island on the Italian coast, with liberty to keep a 
miniature army and navy. The English' ministers reluctantly 
consented to this arrangement to please their powerful ally, and 
its folly was soon apparent. 

§ 55. Napoleon was very restless in his little dominion, and in 
the spring of 1815 he landed in France, and was rapturously re- 


55S HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book X. 

Battle of Waterloo. A long Peace. National Debt and Discontents. 

ceivcd by his old army, which took upon itself to decide the fate 
of the country. The Bourbons withdrew without a struggle, and 
he marched into Flanders, saying: “I go to measure myself 
against Wellington.” The battle of Waterloo soon took place 
[June 18, 1815], when he was totally defeated. He then at¬ 
tempted to escape to America; but, failing in this, he surrendered 
to England, and w T as sent to St. Helena, an island of the South 
Atlantic Ocean, where he died in the year 1821. On the 20th of 
November, 1815, a definite treaty of peace between France and 
the Allied Powers was signed. The world was then at peace, and 
England enjoyed that luxury for thirty yearn afterward. 

§ 56. Much as peace was desired, and great as had been the re¬ 
joicings when the allied sovereigns and their most distinguished 
generals visited England in 1814, after the fall of Paris, its return 
was attended with deep discontent among the people ; for almost 
all the conquests of the war were restored, and the nation found 
itself burdened ‘ with a debt that was enormous. It was then 
the frightful sum of £865,000,000, or $4,825,000,000, or over 
$800,000,000 more than it is now. a Want of labor 

a § io, p. 4«4. during the long war p a( q caused machinery of every 

kind to be invented; and when thousands of soldiers and sailors 
were discharged there was no employment for them. There was 
also great distress from the high price of food, caused, in a great 
degree, by the oppressive corn-laws, which restricted the impor¬ 
tation of grain so as to protect the interests of the few great land¬ 
holders and the master agriculturists. When, in 1815, an act 
was passed which prohibited foreign wheat from being brought 
into England until the famine price of eighty shillings a quarter 
should be reached, the people could endure the pressure no longer, 
and serious riots ensued, in which lives were lost. Want of em¬ 
ployment often disposed the laboring classes to listen eagerly to 
evil advisers; but there were patriotic and benevolent men w r ho 
saw and felt the folly and injustice of legislation for the benefit 
of the few to the injury of the many, who stirred the hearts, of 
the people with righteous indignation. The government and the 
aristocracy became alarmed, and some extremely severe laws 
against public meetings and so-called seditious publications were 
passed. 1 

i One of the most noted agitators of that period was William Cobbett, who published 
a vigorous opposition periodical called The Political Register.” He had been a 


559 


Chapter III.] THE HOUSE OF BRUNSWICK. 

Reforms demanded. Revolutionary movements. Death of the King. 

§ 57. But tlie distress continued, especially in the manufactur¬ 
ing districts of Lancashire and Yorkshire, and riots for the pur¬ 
pose of destroying machinery became frequent. London, too, 
had its Spafields riot in 1816, 1 and v the unpopularity of the gov¬ 
ernment was shown by the joy evinced at the acquittal of several 
persons tried for treason or sedition. The question of reform in 
parliament, which had lain dormant so many years 

X * • ^ ^ ^ | p 

after its abandonment by Pitt, a was now revived by 

J b § is, p. 464. 

the Whigs ; b but there were others whom this would 
not satisfy. They became known as Radicals, as they demanded 
a “radical reform ” in everything. They held public meetings, 
which were attended by immense numbers of persons, where some 
of the more zealous ones displayed the red cap of the French re¬ 
publicans. Many practised drill and military manoeuvres, as if 
for an appeal to arms, the discharged soldiers proving willing in¬ 
structors. Royal proclamations were disregarded, and at last a 
very large meeting at Manchester, in 1819, was dispersed by force, 
and Henry Hunt, a popular orator, was arrested and imprisoned. 
But these harsh measures did not quiet the agitation. They 
deepened the discontent. Disaffection remained, and the whole 
country was at one tinfe about ready to blaze out into insurrec¬ 
tion. Some Scotch weavers appeared in arms near Glasgow, and 
a few desperate men headed by Arthur Thistlewood, once a militia 
officer, planned a massacre of the whole of the cabinet ministers 
at a dinner in February, 1820. This, which is known as the Cato- 
street conspiracy, was disclosed just in time, by one of the mem¬ 
bers, to prevent the crime, and five of the plotters were executed. 
Several more, on pleading guilty, were transported. 

§ 58. A little while before the discovery of this plot, George 
the Third died. That event occurred at Windsor, on the evening 
of Saturday, the 29th of January, 1820, when he was in the eighty- 
second year of his age, and the sixtieth of his reign. He married, 
in 1761, the Princess Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, by whom 


resident in the United States many years before, where he was a most abusive political 
writer. He had suffered severe punishments for libel after his return to England, 
and now, alarmed at the new acts, he fled to America, leaving some of his disciples to 
suffer. 

i More than 30,000 persons assembled in Spafields to vote an address to the Prince 
Regent 6 from the distressed manufacturers, on the 15th of November, c ^ 44> p 5 _ g 
1816. Another meeting was held on the 2d of December following, and 
terminated in a serious riot. 


560 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book X. 

Character of George the Third. Accession of George the Fourth. His Queen. 

he had nine sons and six daughters. She was a very exemplary 
woman, and .died only a few weeks sooner than her husband 
[November 17, 1819], in the seventy-fifth year of her age. The 
king had been in seclusion about ten years, on account of his in¬ 
sanity. He had, while in possession of his faculties, been always 
sincerely desirous of the welfare of his subjects, but was too 
often surrounded by unwise or incompetent counsellors. Himself 
incapable of perceiving the vast changes that were going on, his 
mind continued fixed in the principles in which he had been edu¬ 
cated, and liis people, who were borne forward on the current of 
events, regarded him as narrow-minded, while satisfied that he 
meant to do right. In private life he was most exemplary, and 
his homely familiarity and accessibility endeared him to the peo¬ 
ple, who regarded him with sincere affection, and called him 
“ the good king.” 


CHAPTER IV. 

Reign of George the Fourth. [a.d. 1820 to 1830.] 

§ 1. A bad man ascended the throne of England on the death of 
George the Third. It was his son George, then fifty-eight years of 
age, who was proclaimed king on the 31st of January, 1820, as 
George the Fourth. He had from his early years led a reckless 
and discreditable life; had had large debts paid for him by the 
nation; and had forsaken his wife (his cousin Caroline of Bruns¬ 
wick, whom he married in 1795) after living with her only a single 
year. He found his chief associates among the Whig party ; but 
when he became Regent [a.d. 1811] he did not change the ministry, 
and the “Prince’sfriends,” as they styled themselves, remained in 
opposition. When he became king they made their opposition 
bitterly felt by taking up the cause of his discarded wife, from 
whom he sought to be divorced. 

§ 2. That princess had been abroad ever since the peace, and the 
king could not reconcile himself to her returning as queen. He 
had no son, and his wish was to imitate Henry the 
a § 16, p. 15. jjjgkth under similar circumstances, 4 and marry again. 
But parliaments in modern days are not as compliant as under 



561 


Chapter IV.] THE HOUSE OF BRUNSWICK 

Trial of the Queen. The King and Parliament. Ministerial changes. 

the Tudors, and Lord Liverpool incurred the king’s displeasure by 
maintaining that the measure would never be agreed to. Large 
offers were made to the queen to induce her at least to remain on 
the Continent; but this she refused to do, and came to England. 
To their discredit, the ministry, rather than resign office, now 
attempted to carry out the king’s views, and she was in reality put 
upon her trial before the House of Peers, a Bill of Pains and Penal¬ 
ties intended to dissolve her marriage being introduced against her 
in August, 1820. 

§ 3. During that trial the excitement throughout the country 
was intense. The popular sympathy was all with the queen. The 
divorce was so vehemently opposed that the ministry were obliged 
to abandon the scheme, and the king became so much more un¬ 
popular than before that he seldom afterward appeared in public 
in England. He keenly felt the public rejoicing on account of the 
queen’s triumph. His coronation, though splendid beyond example, 
was but slightly attended from fear of popular tumult, and a very 
serious riot did occur at the funeral of the queen, who died very 
soon after her claim to be crowned with him had been disallowed, 
and admission to Westminster Abbey on that occasion [July 19, 
1821] refused to her. She expired on the 7th of August following, 
a heart-broken woman. The king, who was universally detested 
by all good and thoughtful persons, afterwards visited Ireland, 
Hanover, and .lastly Scotland [a.d. 1822], and met in each with a 
kind reception. 

§ 4. The king had only started a single day on this last journey 
when a matter occurred that eventually led to a complete change 
in the policy of the empire. This was the suicide of the Marquis 
of Londonderry, the Foreign Secretary, a man who was considered 
by far the most energetic of the ministers, and the filling up of his 
office with George Canning, once the friend of the younger Pitt, 11 
but now the champion of what had come to be 

a § a7, p. 545. 

known as Liberalism. 

§ 5. The government in Spain, Portugal, and Italy had long been 
purely despotic ; but the intercourse with England that sprang up 
during the late war had caused its form of government to be 
approved by many of the leading men in those countries, though 
the body of the people took no concern in the matter. Thus the 
Spanish Cortes framed a constitution during Ferdinand’s absence 
in France, but on his return he set it aside as destructive of his 
04* 


562 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book X. 

Revolutionary Movements. Political Equality of Roman Catholics. 

just, authority. Early in 1820 a part of the army revolted, estab¬ 
lished the constitution, and reduced the king to a cipher. The 
example was speedily followed in Naples, in Portugal, and in 
Piedmont; and at about the same time the Greeks took up arms 
against the Turks. To prevent the revolutionary example spread¬ 
ing still farther, the emperors of Austria and Russia, and the kings 
of France and Prussia, came to an understanding, in consequence 
of which the Austrians crushed the Italians, and the French re-es¬ 
tablished Ferdinand on the throne of Naples, and the Portuguese 
king abolished the new constitution. Russia had long been the 
foe of Turkey, and, in spite of Alexander’s scruples about counte¬ 
nancing rebellion, it suited his policy to keep the Greek revolt alive. 
Many English, French, and Germans went to the assistance of the 
insurgents, though their governments did not as yet interfere, and 
food and clothing were sent to them from the United States of 
America. 

§ 6. Whilst the Liberal cause was thus depressed on the Conti¬ 
nent, Mr. Canning strove to promote it by acknowledging the 
independence of the revolted Spanish American colonies—Mexico, 
Peru, et cetera. He also, in conjunction with Mr. Huskisson, began 
that change in the narrow commercial policy w'hicli has since 
repealed the corn-laws a and established free-trade. 
8 § 56, p ' B58 ' These matters he carried in spite of the reluctance of 
several of his colleagues, who looked on him as encroaching upon 
the authority of the premier ; b but they were especially 
b § 4, p. 500. 0 fl! en( j e( j at advocacy of the Roman Catholic claims 

to political equality in the State. This had for some years been 
an open question—that is, one that the Cabinet was not bound to 
be unanimous upon—and the difference of his views would have 
been passed over, but for the encouragement that his eloquent 
speeches gave to the “ Catholic Association in Ireland,” a body 
presided over by Daniel O’Connell, an able and eloquent Irish 
lawyer, which from humbly petitioning, had now begun to hold 
menacing language. By Mr. Canning’s influence a bill giving- 
relief to Romanists was passed by the House of Commons, but it 
was rejected by the Lords [a.d. 1825]; and it -was understood that 
not only the king, but his brother the Duke of York, who was the 
next heir to the throne, was firmly opposed to the principle. The 
duke, however, died soon afterward, and when the question was 
revived it was under widely different circumstances. 


5G3 


Chapter IV.] THE HOUSE OF BRUNSWICK. 


§ 35, p. 530. 


War with the-Burmese. Injurious Speculation. Change of Ministers. 

§ 7. A new enemy to England had of late years appeared on the 
borders of its East Indian possessions.* This was the 
Burmese, a warlike people beyond the Ganges, with a ^ ° 5, P ‘ 6iU ' 
whom some dispute about frontiers ripened into a war in 1824. 
After a two years’ contest they were obliged to sue for peace; and 
at just about the same time the reduction of Bhurtpoor, an Indian 
stronghold supposed to be invincible from having resisted several 
former attempts by the British, made a deep impression on many 
of the native princes. b The colonies that had been 
taken from the French and Dutch had (with the ex¬ 
ception of the Cape of Good Hope, Ceylon, and the Mauritius) been 
restored, and the advocates of the new policy maintained that 
England gained more by trading with them than by possessing 
them. Their opponents denied this, but it was allowed that from 
the time that Mr. Huskisson came into office [a.d. 1823], the re¬ 
vival of trade and commerce had been very great, and in propor¬ 
tion as the workmen obtained employment so did their manifested 
discontents decrease. But this did not last long. In 1825 a mania 
for speculation arose, and the consequences were almost a^ dis¬ 
astrous as those of the South-Sea scheme a century 

c § 9, p. 513. 

before. 0 Banks failed, establishments were closed, 

and the starving workmen were ready for any desperate course. 

§ 8. In 1826, a constitution being again established in Portugal, d 
British troops were sent to protect that country from 
a threatened attack by Spain, a step which Mr. Can¬ 
ning’s colleagues resented, as if he had acted too much on his own 
authority. Before they could come to a good understanding .the 
Earl of Liverpool, the premier, was struck down by paralysis 
[a.d. 1827], when, to the surprise of every one, the king bestowed 
the post on Mr. Canning, who had long been personally obnoxious 
to him as a partisan of his queen. 6 The Duke of Wel¬ 
lington/ Lord Eldon, Mr. Peel, and four other cabi¬ 
net ministers, however, absolutely refused to serve 
with him, and he could only fill their posts with members of the 
Whig party, though on the question of parliamentary reform he 
differed entirely from them. He had long been in feeble' health, 
and he died in less than four months after taking office, and with¬ 
out having carried a single measure. A land of provisional ad¬ 
ministration followed for a few months, of which Lord Goderich 
was premier [Aug. 1827 to Jan. 1828]. 


d § 5, p. 06L 


! § 8. p. 561. 
f § 41, p. 551. 



564 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book X. 

Greek Insurrection. Agitations in Ireland. Resignation of the Ministry. 

§ 9. The Greek insurrection had now continued for some years, 
and was attended by great cruelties on both sides. The Turks at 
length summoned Meliemet Ali, the Pasha of Egypt, to their aid, 
and he sent a fleet and army to the Morea, with the threat that he 
would carry off the inhabitants as slaves, and colonize the country 
afresh with his negro soldiery. So hideous a proposal roused the 
indignation of Europe, and England, France, and Russia sent 
their ships to prevent its realization. The Turkish and Egyptian 
fleet lay in the harbor of Navarino, where it was attacked and de¬ 
stroyed on the 20th of October, 1827. The news of the victory 
was at first very welcome in England, but it soon began to be seen 
that it was unwise to weaken the Turks too much, and thus ad¬ 
vance the designs of Russia, and the ministry became so unpopular 
that they were obliged to retire. The Duke of Wellington and 
Mr. Peel became the heads of the government [Jan. 1828], and im¬ 
portant events speedily followed. 

§ 10. The agitation in Reland for the political emancipation 
of the Roman Catholics had never ceased, and O’Connell, its 
leader, had now entered upon a new mode of action. He took ad¬ 
vantage of an election in the west of Reland, and though legally 
ineligible, easily procured himself to be chosen a member of the 
House of Commons. As he knew would be the case, he was re¬ 
fused a seat. This was represented as a fresh outrage on Leland, 
and the agitation grew fiercer than ever. The “ Catholic Associa¬ 
tion ” continued to meet, in open defiance of the law, and on the 
other hand the Protestants formed Brunswick Clubs, and made a 
parade of their hostility. The Duke of Wellington now saw that 
there was no choice but concession of the Roman Catholic claims 
or civil war—and “ knowing,” as he said, “ what war really was,” 
he preferred the former. Lord John Russell, at the head of the 
Whig party, had recently procured the repeal of some acts of the 
time of Charles the Second, directed against Protestant dissent¬ 
ers a which had survived the Revolution, and the Duke 

a ^ ’ p ' ' justly considered the great majority of the Irish peo¬ 
ple (his countrymen) at least as much entitled to consideration. 

§ 11. The king in general took no concern in politics, but, like 
his father, he thought that his coronation oath forbade the con¬ 
cession asked for by the Roman Catholics, and his ministers had 
great difficulty to gain his consent to what was known as “ Catholic 
Emancipation.” The measure was brought forward in 1829, and 


565 


Chapter V.] THE HOUSE OF BRUNSWICK. 

Death and Character of George the Fourth. Religious Freedom. 

passed mainly by tlie votes of the Whigs; but both the Duke and 
Mr. Peel forfeited, for a time, the confidence of the party with 
which they had hitherto acted. Mr. Peel was deprived of the 
honor of representing the University of Oxford, and the Duke had 
to fight a duel with the Earl of Winchelsea, formerly one of his 
firmest supporters. In the midst of the confusion that ensued, the 
king, who had long been an invalid, as a consequence of his self- 
indulgence, became suddenly worse, and died on the morning of 
the 26th of June, 1880, from the immediate effects of the rupture 
of a blood-vessel of the stomach. He was then in the .68th year 
of his age. He left the throne to his brother William, the Duke 
of Clarence, his only child, the Princess Charlotte, having died 
in 1817. 

§ 12. George the Fourth was a man of good natural abilities, 
but he too seldom exerted them for the benefit of his people. He 
possessed literary and musical tastes; was of a handsome and dig¬ 
nified presence ; and was by his admirers styled “ the first gentle¬ 
man in Europe,” from the courtesy of his manner. But he always 
seemed reluctant to appear in public, and he resembled Charles 
the Second only in the worst parts of that monarch’s character. 
He gave himself up to the guidance of worthless favorites; and 
he usually let his ministers manage affairs as they chose, so long as 
they supplied him with ample means for self-indulgence and idle 
pageantry, and forbore to trouble him to do more than agree to 
their proposals. 


CHAPTER Y. 

Society during the Reigns of the Four Georges. 

§ 1. Religious freedom among Protestants steadily gamed victo¬ 
ries, small but important. The Toleration Act, a about a g x p 498 
to be repealed when Queen Anne died, was soon after¬ 
ward somewhat extended. But the Roman Catholics, exempted 
from its privileges, felt no diminution of the effects p 4gQ 
of the ban under which they were laid. The first par¬ 
liament of George the First, after the Jacobite b rebellion in 1715, 



566 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book X. 

Bigotry suppressed by free Discussion. Schism in the Church. 

passed an act containing many hard words and a loud boast of gov¬ 
ernment clemency, requiring every “ papist of the age of twenty-one 
years to register his name and estates, with the yearly rent thereof, 
the object being, apparently, to subject them to separate taxation, 
llut the indignation caused by that rebellion, as well as the Jaco¬ 
bite insurrection in 1745 a soon cooled, and no extra- 
a ^ 15, p ‘ 521 ‘ ordinary burdens were laid upon the Romanists. At¬ 
tempts were made to moderate the harsh laws against them, and 
also to allow Jews to become naturalized without taking the sa¬ 
crament ; but bigotry prevailed over Christian forbearance, and 
the High Church 1 influence which caused Defoe, the author of Rob¬ 
inson Crusoe , to be fined and imprisoned in 1706 for publishing his 
able poem, Jure Dimno, would allow no toleration which might 
interfere with their power. It was the usual exercise of the ty¬ 
ranny of Might over Right. 

§ 2. But reason left free, discussion soon wrought great changes 
in opinion, and there were two remarkable secessions from the es¬ 
tablished church. The first occurred in Scotland, where an inde¬ 
pendent organization, known as the Associate Presbytery, was 
formed, and which, in 1743, renewed the Scottish 
b § 25, P . 411. National covenant, and also the Solemn League and 
Covenant. b 

§ 3. Almost simultaneously with this Scotch schism the Metho¬ 
dists appeared. John Wesley, a young graduate of Oxford, and 
just ordained a minister in the Church of England, was the 
founder of a sect so called. They held meetings in the open air 
and other “ unconsecrated places,” and were persecuted by the 
church. George Whitefield, another young preacher, joined them. 
A separate organization was formed, distinct, but not opposed to 
the established church. The Society rapidly spread, especially in 
America, where it is now the most numerous of the Christian sects. 
There were other and less prominent secessions. In the church the 
leaven of Christian liberality was at work, which vastly modified 
its character. The High Churchman of the middle of the eigh¬ 
teenth century was but a lunar reflection of the churchman of the 

i The distinction of High and Low Chnrch began, in name, in the reign of Queen 
Anne. The friends of Dr. Sacheverell “ (among whom was the Queen), 

a § 15, p. 495. w j 10 was prosecuted for preaching two sermons calculated to excite hosti¬ 
lity against the Dissenters, were called High Churchmen, and his opponents Low 
Churoh, or moderate men. 


567 


Chapter V.] THE HOUSE OF BRUNSWICK. 

Dissenters and Churchmen. Legislation. Financial Transactions. 

time of Laud a and San croft.' b Dissenters were gradually relieved of 
burdens ; but the last—the necessity of receiving the a § 24 p 41Q 
sacrament in the Church of England as a qualification b g 5 p 481 
for holding certain offices, and the denial of their 
right to the solemnization of their marriages in their own chapels 
or in a registry office—was not taken off until the year 1836. In 
the mean time some of the fiery enactments against the Roman 
Catholics had been repealed, and at length they were emancipated, 
as we have observed. c In. the Anglo-American co- 

. ° § 11, p. 5b4. 

lonies the dissenters were an overwhelming majori¬ 
ty, especially in New England, and efforts to establish episcopacy 
in America—a joint domination of Church and State, as in Eng¬ 
land—were vigorously resisted and defeated. Controversy ran 
high for many years before the kindling of the American Revolu¬ 
tion [a.d. 1775]; and after the Declaration of Independence, in 
the summer of 1776, the churchmen in America, especially the 
clergy, generally adhered to the crown, though there were numer¬ 
ous exceptions. 

§ 4. The amount of legislation during the period we are con¬ 
sidering was very great. That of the closing years of the eigh¬ 
teenth century and the earlier years of the nineteenth century al¬ 
most equalled that in the whole preceding period of the British 
monarchy. It may be classed under the four heads (1), Constitutional 
legislation; (2), Legislation relating to real and personal property; 
(3), Criminal or penal legislation; and (4), Financial legislation. 
Our limits will not allow us to specify the important acts to which 
these titles obviously refer, and we will only note that which con¬ 
summated the political union of Ireland with Eng- d § ^ p g49 
land, on the first of January, 1801/ and the fact that, e § p * m ' 
during the excitements in England caused by the 
French Revolution, 6 a vast number and variety of penal acts were 
passed. 

§ 5. The financial transactions of England during the first fifteen 
years of this century far transcended everything else of the kind 
known in the history of the world. Never before, in any country 
were such stupendous pecuniary means wielded by a government 
as did that of England wield from 1803 to 1815, the period of the 
great war with Napoleon. f The loans were enor- ( ^ p 550 
mous. The amount* raised by loans and exchequer- 
bills, or treasury notes, never amounted to less than $50,000,000 a 


568 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 


[Book X. 

Taxation and Property. Eminent Men. American Colonies. 

year, and on one occasion [a.d. 1814], rose to $230,000,000. 
Taxation was increased every year. The total amount paid in 
taxes in 1801 was $170,000,000, and in 1815 it had reached 
$360,000,000. And yet, during all that time, the wealth of Eng¬ 
land grew more abundant, and the value of taxable property was 
largely increased. It was at the middle of the period we are con 
sideling that Sir William Blackstone flourished, and by his writ¬ 
ings made clear the obscurities of the laws and jurisprudence of 
Great Britain. His Commentaries on the Laws of England , first 
made in a series of brilliant lectures at Oxford, begun in 1753, 
were published between the years 1764 and 1770, and made his 
name immortal. And it is in the records of this period that the 
great names in Government and Law of Walpole, the Pitts (father 
and son), Burke, Fox, Thurlow, Mansfield, Elgin, Bentham, Ers- 
kine, Canning, and Brougham, and a host of lesser but brilliant 
ones appeared. 

§ 6. Truly marvellous was the advancement of the national in¬ 
dustry during the reigns of the Georges. There was wiser, but 
yet not very wise, legislation in regard to trade and commerce in 
the earlier part of the period, for the English mind could not yet 
comprehend how free-trade, that gave foreigners a chance for profit 
in traffic with Englishmen, could add to the wealth of English¬ 
men. The old systems of exclusiveness—of monopolies and tariffs 
for the protection of domestic industry—were rigidly adhered to, 
but with some sensible modifications. The value of the American 
Plantations, as the colonies were called, was, for a long time, en¬ 
tirely underrated. Even so late as 1715, William Penn offered to 
sell to the crown his lordship of Pennsylvania for £12,000, or 
$60,000 ! And it was not until intercolonial wars revealed the 
marvellous resources of the American settlers that English states¬ 
men regarded them with much concern in connection with the na¬ 
tional industry, and then only with a view to making them tribu¬ 
tary to the national treasury. 

§ 7. It was at the beginning of this period that the great Soutli- 
Sea scheme, which had an important effect upon the nation, began 
its work. The public floating debt in 1710 was about £10,000,000, 
or $50,000,000, and it was proposed to the holders of the securi¬ 
ties to form a joint-stock company to engage in a monopoly of the 
trade to the South Seas. The promises of enormous profits were 
numerous, and the company was eagerly formed. It was managed 


CiiapteTv V.] THE HOUSE OF BRUNSWICK. 


569 


The South-Sea Scheme. Shipping. Sugar Islands. Emigration. 

unwisely at first, and afterward dishonestly. Shares were eagerly 
sought, and gambling in them was carried on most insanely for a 
time by nearly all of the wealthy persons of the kingdom, of both 
sexes. The cunning directors, by false lures, raised the price of 
shares from £100 to £1,000. The bubble burst in 1720, leaving 
the fortunes of many families in utter ruin. Wide-spread demor¬ 
alization and vast injury to the national industry was the result. 
Speculation had not only seized upon the shares of other corpora¬ 
tions, but caused a large number of new ones to be formed, which, 
from the beginning, were nothing but the implements of swindlers 
for acquiring wealth. The stock of the East India a ^ 8 p 447 
Company-, a originally £100 a share, rose to £445, and 
the Bank of England shares, originally £96, rose to £260. The 
reaction was most disastrous. 

§ 8. In the year after the explosion of the South-Sea scheme 
[a.d. 1721] parliament passed laws for the encouragement of com¬ 
merce, trade, and manufactures; and in 1725 the South-Sea Com¬ 
pany endeavored to retrieve some of its losses by whale-fishing 
in the Northern Seas. It lost in the effort nearly a million dollars, 
and in 1732 it disappeared from public view. 

§ 9. At the opening of the reign of George the Second 6 the coun¬ 
try was beginning to recover from the blow inflicted b § 1 ^ glg 
by unhealthy speculation, and general prosperity was 
felt for many years afterward. The tonnage of its shipping was 
largely multiplied; the price of land greatly increased; money 
became abundant at lower rates of interest; and all classes indulged 
in better and more expensive styles of living. One great source 
of this prosperity was in the outlying possessions of Great Britain 
_its sugar islands in the West Indies and its North American colo¬ 
nies. In one year [a.d., 1734] the sugar islands produced 85,000 
hogsheads of the sweet product, and Great Britain consumed 70,- 
000 hogsheads of it. In 1860 Great Britain consumed 400,000 
hogsheads of sugar. At the same time the American colonies were 
rapidly increasing in population and products of industry. Over 
6,000 emigrants went to Pennsylvania alone (mostly from Ireland) 
in the year 1729 ; 1 and the other colonies all felt the stimulus of 

l Of the 6,208 persons who emigrated to Pennsylvania in that year, 243 were Ger¬ 
mans from the Palatinate; 267 English and Welsh; 43 Scotch; and the remaining 
5,655 all, or nearly all, Irish. The Germans were all passengers, the Scotch all ser¬ 
vants, and the English, Welsh, and Irish, partly passengers and partly servants. 


570 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book X. 

American Industries. Navigation Laws. Manufactures. Iron and Coal. 

emigration. Industries of every kind flourished in these colonies 
—agriculture, fisheries, ship-building, and manufactures of every 
sort—and these might have become sources of immense wealth to 
the mother country had not a most unwise selfishness been prac¬ 
tically manifested. It was the policy of the government to en¬ 
courage the colonists in agricultural pursuits, but to make them 
entirely dependent upon Great Britain for every fabric. For this 
purpose laws were made for restricting trades and manufactures in 

the colonies: and these oppressive measures, under 
a §14, p. 539. ’ „ . .. , 

the general name of navigation laws, were among 

the most powerful causes that led to the Revolution of 1775. a 

§ 10. The manufacture of woollen, silk, and linen fabrics found 
great encouragement during the first half of this period. Cotton 
from the East Indies was found upon looms here and there in the 
reign of George the First. So early as 1733, Wyatt made a ma¬ 
chine by which the first thread of cotton was spun “without the 
intervention of the human fingers.” At the same time workers in 
metals were abundantly and profitably employed; and the iron 
trade, employing 200,000 persons, was deemed the third of the na¬ 
tional manufactures. New processes for making iron for use were 
discovered. In districts where iron manufactures had been carried 
on for centuries, wood had become scarce. A supply was sought 
in Ireland, and the immense forests of America were regarded as 
the great resource thereafter. The wealth in coal, lying in the bo¬ 
som of the earth under English soil, was known, and a reward 
was offered to the man who should make bar iron with coal. 
It was successfully done in 1740, and then the vast coal-fields found 
new consumers. The copper manufacture was also extensive, and 
in 1742 Sheffield plate was first manufactured in the town of that 
name. The earthenware made in England previous to 1760 was 
comparatively crude, but at about that time Wedgwood began 
operations which carried it to great perfection within ten years. 
For a long time English watches had been in great repute on the 
continent. Printing type was first made in England in 1720; and 
the first stereotype plate ever made came from the hand of Wil¬ 
liam Ged, in Edinburgh, in 1725. 

§11. Inventions just hinted at produced a complete revolution in 
the cloth manufactures of England during the latter half of the 
eighteenth century, and brought cotton fabrics into universal us ?. 
The great demand of weavers for cotton yarn stimulated invention, 


Chapter V.] THE HOUSE OF BRUNSWICK. 571 

Spinning and Weaving Machines. Whitney’s Cotton-Gin. Cotton Manufacture. 

and the hint given by Wyatt caused John Hargreaves, a weaver, 
to invent a spinning-machine in 17G4, which first had eight spin¬ 
dles, but the number was-soon increased to eighty, each spinning 
a thread at the same time. Hargreaves was so persecuted by the 
hand-spinners that he left his native place and set .up a mill in 
Nottingham. Soon afterward, Richard Arkwright, a barber, came 
to the same place with a spinning-machine of his own invention, 
which was a great improvement on Hargreaves’. This, with a 
carding-machine that Arkwright invented, made vast improve¬ 
ments in the cotton manufacture. Its increase was wonderful, and 
in 1782 Arkwright’s mills employed about 5,000 persons. 

§ 12. In 1779 Samuel Cfompton invented a machine which vastly 
increased the manufacturing power, for in a short time after its 
invention each machine carried 2,200 spindles, all of which were 
kept in operation by one attendant. So rapidly did these machines 
produce cotton yarn that the supply of raw cotton, everywhere 
cleaned of seed by the slow process of hand labor, was not suffi¬ 
cient, for the power-looms invented by Edward Cartwright, in 
1785, were working rapidly with the spinners. A want was soon 
supplied by Eli Whitney, an American, who, in the last decade of 
the century, invented the cotton-gin for cleaning the wool, which 
performed the work of a thousand hands in a given time. This 
stimulated the production of cotton and the cotton manufacture ; 
and it is estimated that at the present time there are 40,000,000 
spindles at work, of which 22,000,000 are in Great Britain. Al¬ 
most simultaneous with the inventions of Hargreaves and Ark¬ 
wright was that of the steam-engine, by James Watt, which was 
soon extensively employed where water-power could not be better 
used. 

§ 13. British commerce and trade were seriously affected by the re¬ 
volt of the American colonies; but immediately after the war that 
had ensued, the exports of Great Britain increased nearly fifty per 
cent., and the tonnage of its ships almost ninety per cent. A com¬ 
mercial treaty was formed with France [a.d. 1787]; but a propo¬ 
sition for a similar one with the United States was rejected by the 
British ministry almost with scorn. The idea prevailed in Eng¬ 
land that the mere league of States which composed the national 
government of the United States, under the articles of Confedera¬ 
tion, could not long endure, and that they would soon become 
British colonies again. But when a truly national government was 


572 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book X. 

Commerce and Commercial Relations with the United States. Agriculture. 


formed, by the Constitution of 1787, England eagerly sought to 
negotiate a commercial treaty^ and it was done. 

§ 14. At that time the British fisheries were an important part of 
the national industry. In 1789. about 2,500 vessels of every kind 
were employed in the various operations of the cod-fishery off the 
coasts of Newfoundland alone. At the same time the amount of 
tea brought annually into England averaged 19,000,000 pounds, 
and other traffic with the East was enormous. The slave-trade on 
the coast of Africa was also profitable. The slave-ships carried 
their human cargoes to the West Indies, and then went to England 
laden with the products of those islands. In the year 1787 the 
market value of slaves carried from Africa in British ships was 
31 546 ^00$00, or $4,500,000. The French Revolution ft 

§ 31, p. 546. jjjyoiygd Great Britain in a long war, and for 

many yearn her commerce was in a wretchedly unsettled state. Her 
finances were deranged; and in 1797 the Bank*of England sus¬ 
pended specie payment. A paper currency then became a legal 
tender, when there was in the country gold to the value of 
£22,000,000, or.$120,000,000, a little more than was in the United 
States Treasury at one time in 1869. 

§ 15. During the long reign of George the Third b the useful arts 
made wonderful advancement in England. We have 
§ 58, p. oo.. a j rea( jy considered some of the inventions connected 
with them. There seemed to be an energy in the nation that overcame 
every obstacle, and whatever was needed was produced. The dis¬ 
coveries of chemists and physicists were wedded to the ingenuity 
of mechanics, and invention produced grand results in the de¬ 
velopment of new implements of labor. Agriculture partook of 
the general impulse toward improvement, and new methods of 
culture brought larger returns to the husbandman. The breeding 
of live stock was an important branch of the business, and new r 
and valuable varieties were frequently introduced by importations 
and crossing. Corn-laws were enacted for the protection and 
benefit of producers, but they were immediately more hurtful than 
useful to the people. And yet the high price of grain—caused 
partly by these laws, and partly by an increased demand, because 
of labor drawn from the farm to the factory and workshop, and 
the rapid increase in population—was of permanent benefit to the 
nation. It caused vast domains that were lying idle to be brought 
under cultivation. From 1770 to 1779 no less than 1,200,000 acres 


573 


Chapter V.] THE HOUSE OF BRUNSWICK. 

Improvements in Agriculture. Wages and Expenses. Transportation. 

in England were enclosed and cultivated for the first time; and 
from 1780 to 1800, other tracts to the amount of 1,300,000 acres 
were so treated, and thus augmented the national wealth. 

§ 16. High prices stimulated production. New kinds of farm¬ 
ing implements were made and profitably used ; and such was the 
product of the land and the high prices therefor, that in the year 
1795 £20,000,000, or $100,000,000, it was estimated, went into the 
pockets of the British farmers. Yet all England—even a majority 
of the population of England—were not prosperous, in the best 
sense of that term. The great masses—the laborers for wages out 
of clerical channels—were not adequately paid. Their remunera¬ 
tion for a day’s work in 1800 was but a trifle more than it was 
seventy years before, when the necessaries of life were much 
cheaper. The wages of mechanics and unskilled laborers in 1800 
could not purchase a third part of the quantity of such necessa¬ 
ries they would buy three-quarters of a century before. The con¬ 
sequence was a great increase of pauperism and suffering. The 
rich had become richer, and the poor poorer. Such was the case 
until the close of the reign of the last George. Statistics show 
the melancholy fact that the social condition of the laboring classes 
in England had very little improved since the time of the Plan- 
tagenets, several centuries before. 

§ 17. During this period there were great improvements in road¬ 
making and other means for transportation. During the earlier 
years of George the Third’s reign, the roads in Great Britain were 
in a wretched state; and even at the beginning of the present cen¬ 
tury there had been very little improvement. But the needs of 
transportation for farm produce, and facilities for carrying the 
mails and travellers, called for good roads, and first turnpiking and 
then the stone roads made by MacAdam soon came into general use. 
Bridge-making, upon new methods, advanced at the same time 
toward perfection, and in this connection Telford and Rennie 
were conspicuous. Statistics show that in 1815 there were 108,000 
miles of highways for commercial travel in England and Wales. 
The first suspension-bridge was built by Rennie early in this cen¬ 
tury. Canals had then been in operation in Scotland and England 
for about forty years. Then came, in the course of time, railways 
to compete with these artificial rivers. So early as 1805 an iron 
railway was opened to connect Croydon with the Thames; and in 
July, 1814, the first locomotive, constructed by Stevenson, that 


574 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book X. 

Coal Mining. Manufactures. Literature and Scholars. 

ever took the place of a draught-horse, pulled eight carriages, or 
cars, at the rate of four miles an hour. Steam navigation was also 
introduced into England soon after Fulton had achieved his tri¬ 
umphs in America. The first steamboat built in Great Britain was 
constructed in Scotland, in the year 1812. 

* § 18. It was during this period that coal-mining, in connection 
with the manufacture of iron on a large scale, became a most im¬ 
portant branch of the national industry, while the manufacture of 
iron assumed the position of a staple industry. Before the close 
of the last century there were larger iron-works in England than 
anywhere else in the world. One establishment in Shropshire con¬ 
sumed 500 tons of coal a day in the business. Guns and swords 
became a staple of Birmingham manufacture. So early as 1787 
there were 4,000 persons employed there in making guns for the 
African market alone. Birmingham has ever since continued to 
lead all other places in the world in the extent and variety of its 
metal manufactures. Calico-printing had become an extensive 
business in England before the close of the last century; copper 
cylinders, with engraved devices, having been introduced so early 
as 1785. The woollen manufacture kept pace with other indus¬ 
tries, and maintained the relatively exalted position which it had 
held for centuries. Before the close of this period England had 
become the greatest workshop in the world for the manufacture of 
everything useful and ornamental known among civilized men. 

§ 19. In Literature, Science, and the Fine Arts, the achievements 
of this period were marvellous. Our limited space will allow us to 
do little more than notice the names of the greater men whose 
works of intellect made that period one of the most remarkable in 
the history of civilization. 

§ 20. At the funeral of Queen Anne, Defoe, Addison, Steele, 
Burnet, Pope, Swift, and Bolingbroke formed a brilliant assem¬ 
blage whose names have become immortal. When Addison died, 
a few years afterward, Swift stood at the head of prose-writers, 
and Pope led the poets. Pryor, Congreve, Cibber, Farquliar, and 
Vanbrugh were the most conspicuous dramatists. Following on 
came Young, Blair, Thomson, Collins, Akenside, Slienstone, Par¬ 
nell, Savage, and Gray, in poetry; Mandeville, Hutcheson, Berke¬ 
ley, and Hartley, in philosophy; Warburton, Iloadley, Atterbury 
Butler, Middleton, Seeker, and Watts, in theology; and Richard¬ 
son, Fielding, Sterne, and Smollett, in fiction. Richardson has 


Chapter V.] THE HOUSE OF BRUNSWICK. 575 

Literature and Literary Men in the Eighteenth Century. 

been styled the inventor of the modern English novel. Cotempo- 
raneous with these was Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, whose bril¬ 
liant Letters were published in 1763, about a year after her death. 

§ 21. Goldsmith holds the first rank among the poets in the first 
quarter of the reign of George the Third. 7'lie Traveller and The 
Deserted Village form the solid foundations of his fame as a poet. 
His chief poetic cotemporaries were Churchill, Falconer, the 
brothel’s Wharton, Chatterton, and McPherson, the author of the 
poems of Ossian. The dramatic literature of that time was very 
voluminous, in which the leading names are Goldsmith, Garrick, 
and Foote. Horace Walpole’s, tragedy of The Mysterious Mother 
was never acted. Goldsmith’s She Stoops to Conquer was a favor¬ 
ite for a long time. Garrick was also an inimitable actor. So 
also was Foote, who wrote and played no less than twenty-two 
comic pieces. Following these w T riters were Macklin, Murphy, Cum¬ 
berland, Colman, Mrs. Cowley, and Sheridan, the father of the 
brilliant Richard Brinsley Sheridan, all of whom but one lived 
until the close of the last century. 

§ 22. A host of excellent feminine writers appeared during the 
first half of the reign of the third George. The most conspicu¬ 
ous of these were Mistresses Sheridan, Cowley, Brooks, Lennox (a 
native of New York), Montagu, Chapone, Macaulay (who came 
to America on purpose to visit Washington), Hannah More, Bar- 
baukl, Charlotte Smith, Inclibold, and Misses Sophia Lee, Fran¬ 
ces Burney, Anna and Helen Maria Williams, and Catherine 
Talbot. 

§ 23. The Periodical Essay, begun in Queen Anne’s time, was- 
revived late in the reign of George the Second, chiefly by the emi¬ 
nent Dr. Samuel Johnson. Earlier in that reign the Gentlemans 
Magazine (yet published) was begun, and just before its close Ed¬ 
mund Burke commenced [a.d. 1759] the Annual Register , which 
he chiefly conducted for many years. Of the more solid writers of 
that time stand pre-eminent Johnson and Burke, and the author of 
the Letters of Junius, as essayists and political writers; Hume, 
Reid, Kames, and Priestley as metaphysicians; Hume, Robertson, 
and Gibbon as historians; Adam Smith as a political economist; 
in the mathematical and physical sciences, Black, Cavendish, Her- 
schel, Hutton, the Hunters, and Sir Joseph Banks; in theology, 
Clarke, Warburton, South, Horsley, and Priestley ; in belles-lettres, 
Chesterfield, Hawkesworth, Melmoth, Jenyns, Bryant, and Pot- 


576 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book X. 

Later Literary Celebrities. Pine Arts. Royal Academy. Tainting. 

ter; and in voyages of discovery. Commodore Byron, and Captain 
Cook the discoverer of the Sandwich Islands. 

§ 24. With these were cotemporaries whose fame was established 
a little later, such as Cowper, Darwin, Sir William Jones, Dr. Wol¬ 
cott (Peter Pindar), from whom Byron caught the inspiration of 
his Don Juan; Burns, and Pye, the poet-laureate, who, like poet- 
laureates generally, was a very inferior bard. Godwin, Mary 
Wolstoncroft, Pinkerton, Roscoe, Gillies, and Paley were conspicu¬ 
ous in the world of literature at. the close of the last and the be¬ 
ginning of this century. Then appeared, in daily increasing 
lustre, those lights whose radiance mingles with that of the intel¬ 
lectual luminaries of our day. Among the most conspicuous of 
these were the poets Byron, Moore, Scott, Wordsworth, Campbell, 
Shelley, and Keats; among essayists, Lamb, Southey, and Coleridge; 
Playfair,. Davy, the younger Herschel, and Brewster in mathe¬ 
matical science; in history, Mackintosh and Lingard; in theology, 
metaphysics, and political and miscellaneous literature, Professor 
Wilson, Dugald Stewart, Thomas Browne, Robert Hall, Dr. Chal¬ 
mers, Hazlitt, Cobbett, and Lord Brougham. 

§ 25. The fine arts had a sickly existence in England from the 
time of Queen Anne to the accession of George the Third. The 
only artist whose works promise to be immortal was William Ho¬ 
garth, son-in-law, without leave, of Sir James Thornhill, an eminent 
decorative painter. His series of moral dramas, engraved by him¬ 
self, are yet regarded as wonderful triumphs in art. He achieved 
great fame in his lifetime, and was the pet of friends and dread of 
enemies, for the satire of his pencil was most keen. It even si¬ 
lenced the abuse of John Wilkes. a Cotemporaries rose 

§ 5, p. 534. em i nence> a nd in 1759 a society of artists made a 
public exhibition of the works of British painters for the first time. 
This led to the founding of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts. 

§ 26. Portrait-painting was then the most remunerative branch 
of art in England, and in it Sir Joshua Reynolds, who had stud¬ 
ied in Italy, had achieved great fame at the beginning of the reign 
of George the Third. He was compelled to contend with a most 
pernicious public taste, but persevered, and effected a complete revo¬ 
lution in art. He established truth in drawing, exquisite beauty 
in coloring, and grace and ease in composition. He had a most 
earnest and able co-worker in Benjamin West, a native of Penn¬ 
sylvania, and a Quaker. These and a few other artists, British and 


577 


Cr after V.] THE HOUSE OF BRUNSWICK. 

Artists. Sculpture and. Engraving. Music. 

foreign, founded the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in 1768. West 
established a taste for historical painting ; and Wilson and Barry, 
cotemporary artists, founded the English school of landscape, 
which had no successful rival until a few years ago, when Ameri¬ 
can artists bore away the palm. Wilson was to landscape what 
Reynolds was to portraiture, while Gainsborough was also an excel¬ 
lent portrait-painter. Allan Ramsay, son of the Scotch poet, and - 
John Singleton Copley, a native of Boston, Massachusetts, were 
worthy assistants of Reynolds and his friends in the work of art 
reform. From that time the English school of painting has ever 
held a high rank for truthfulness to nature. 

§ 27. Sculpture was in a worse state in England than painting, 
before the accession of George the Third. Roubilliac, a French 
artist who had settled in England, first gave the art eminence there. 
He was chiefly employed in monumental sculpture. The first pub¬ 
lic monument erected by him was that to the memory of Wolfe, 
in Westminster Abbey. His statue of Handel, the finest work of 
the kind that had ever been executed in England, gave him great 
fame. Other good artists followed ; and sculpture lias held a high 
lank in England for half a century or more. 

§ 28. Engraving made considerable progress early in this period. 
Bartolozzi, an Italian, who was a cotemporary of Reynolds, intro¬ 
duced the stipple style of engraving, which took the place of mez¬ 
zotint. He-engraved a vast number of the sketches of his friend 
Cipriani. In line engraving little of merit was done until Wool- 
lett and Strange appeared, with then- exquisite landscapes, early in 
the reign of George the Third. A little later Sharp, the most 
eminent line engraver that has yet appeared, astonished men of 
taste with his marvellous engravings of single figures and groups, 
entirely in line, and which no artist excepting the now venerable 
Asher B. Durand, of New York, ever equalled. Durand’s engrav¬ 
ing of Yanderlyn’s Ariadne is equal to anything ever done by 
Sharp. At about the time when the three British artists named 
flourished, Thomas Bewick revived the art of wood-engraving, 
which had become, by neglect, an absurdity in art. He carried it to 
great perfection, and by showing its marvellous capacities became 
a public benefactor. 

§ 29. Between the death of Queen Anne aud the accession of 
George the Third, sacred music in the oratorio and the cathe¬ 
dral service had attained alrnpst its present perfection. But th^ 
25 


578 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 


[Book X. 

Music and Musical Entertainments. Costumes. 

Italian opera languished, and secular music was in a low state. 
Musical clubs were formed at about the beginning of George ths 
Third’s reign, and there was seen some improvement in the public 
taste, when, in May and June, 1784, the famous Handel Commemora¬ 
tion took place in Westminster Abbey. 1 Its fame spread over 
Europe and received royal commendations. Its home effect was to 
define throughout the British islands a taste for sacred music of the 
highest order. Secular music felt the new awakening, and the spin- 
net and harpsichord, and finally the piano-forte, became the rivals of 
the violin and flute, as instrumental accompaniments of the voice. 

§ 30. In the closing decade of the last century, Salomon gave 
the concert a great popularity in England. The delightful social 
musical performance known as the glee became very popular at about 
the same time, and musical composition was pursued with energy. 
It may be truthfully asserted that no people on the globe are at this 
day so thoroughly educated in the best music as those of England. 

§ 31. There was not much change in the general features of the 
costume of the fashionable people of England from the time of 
Queen Anne until the close of the American war for independence. 
Wigs of great size were worn by both sexes until in the reign of 
George the Second [a.d. 1729 to 1760], and powder was generally 
used. The ladies wore hooped petticoats during all that period ; 
but the era of their greatest extravagance was about 1745, when 
they wore immense ellipses, extending far on each side of the wear¬ 
er. The coats and breeches of gentlemen consisted of dark-col¬ 
ored velvets and cloths, and light silk or satin vests, all trimmed, 
sometimes with gold and silver lace. They also wore small straight 
swords. The ladies wore flowered silks. The gown had wide 
short sleeves. It was looped up at the sides or front, so as to show 
rich petticoats. At the time when the enormous elliptical hoop was 
in vogue they wore little gypsy hats that superseded the high- 
crowned hat of an earlier date. 

§ 32. At the accession of George the Third, and some time before, 
the gentlemen wore tie-wigs, with large curls on each side of the 
head, and the hair was bagged or queued behind. The ladies had 

1 The music was Handel’s exclusively. The band consisted of 513 performers, led 
by Joab Bates, an amateur. The royal family and all the eminent and titled persons 
of the kingdom attended these performances, five in number. The profits were a lit¬ 
tle more than £7,000, of which sum £0,000, or about $30,000, were allotted to the Royal 
Society of Musicians, and £1,000 ($5,000) to the Westminster Hospital. These perform¬ 
ances were repeated annually until 1791, when the members of the band exceeded 1 , 000 . 


Chapter Y.J THE HOUSE OF BRUNSWICK. 579 

Change in Fashions. Style of Living. Politics and Politicians. 

their hair curled down the sides, with flowers, and powdered. 
Lace tippets, with clasps of gold and precious stones, were much 
used. Diamond necklaces and ear-rings were very fashionable; 
and both sexes wore shoe-buckles that sparkled with diamonds. 
The gentlemen wore cocked hats, sometimes richly laced. The 
opening of the vest was filled with fine ruffles, and the wrists 
were encircled by them. The ladies wore elegant bracelets over 
long gloves. 

§ 33. After the close of our Revolution, in 1783, and with the 

opening of the French revolution in 1789, the stately old fashions 

began to change, and some of the most ridiculous costumes for both 

sexes disappeared. Thanks to Reynolds a and his co- ^ 

a §26, p. 5(0. 

temporary artists, the wigs were discarded, and the 
curling or flowing natural hair, powdered and floured, came into 
vegue; and until late in the first quarter of this century almost 
every year saw a change in the fashions of the ladies. Early in 
the closing decade of the last century powder began to be dis¬ 
carded, and long plumes formed a part of the head-dresses. Bon¬ 
nets began to take the place of hats. Waists of dresses grew 
shorter. Hoops were discarded before the year 1800, for the 
French Republicans had assumed the simplicity of Greek and Ro 
man costume. The dress of gentlemen took the general form of 
that of the present day. The pantaloon succeeded the short 
breeches, while the scantiness of pattern in the dresses of the ladies 
was conspicuous, and evoked the special attention of satirists and 
caricaturists. One of the most remarkable of the caricaturists of 
Great Britain, Gilray, flourished at this period. 

§ 34. The style of living among persons of rank and wealth in 
England was not less elegant, but more defined and less extrava¬ 
gant in ornamental display than in the previous period. The 
furniture displayed much better taste. Mahogany was first intro¬ 
duced in the manufacture of cabinet-ware early in this period, 
and in 1745 Brussels carpets were first made in England. After 
that carpeted floors were as common among the wealthy as now. 
New phases of domestic life appeared. The freedom of political 
discussion introduced new modes. Club-houses became very nu¬ 
merous, and there men were found more frequently than in theii 
own dwellings. The theatre, and even Punch in the streets, became 
political satirists. So bold were their displays of free speech that 
Robert Walpole caused an act to be passed for its restraint. In 


580 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book X. 

A Fashionable Beau. Immorality and Folly in Social Life. 

the reign of the two Georges feminine politicians were numerous, 
and in public places the political party to which a lady belonged 
was indicated by the arrangement of the patches on her face—a 
fashion that yet held sway. a The Spectator tells us 
a § lb, p. 4.,o. of a Yihig lady who had a natural mole on the Tory 
side of her brow, by which she was sometimes mistaken for an ally 
by her political opponents. 

§ 35. During a greater portion of the reign of the first two Georges 
the morals of society in England were in a low state. The taint 
which Charles the Second and his licentious court inflicted upon 
the nation still festered, for the practice of the court yet sanc¬ 
tioned irregularities among the people. The revelations of social 
depravity made by cotemporary essayists stagger credulity. The 
whole aspect of society among the aristocracy was artificial, hol¬ 
low, and demoralizing. Shallow coxcombs seemed to give tone to 
manners. 1 Gallantry was the chief form of personal intercourse 
between the sexes, sometimes innocent, but most generally other¬ 
wise. Language was continually upon stilts. Every word and 
act, and even dress, were made to conform to the taste and humor 
of the gentler sex. Metaphor took the place of common sense. 
Classic literature furnished expressions of real or pretended emo- 


i According to cotemporary writers, the fashionable beau received visits in bed from 
ten till twelve o’clock, when he lay in state, his powdered periwig lying beside him on 
the sheets. His dressing-table was sprinkled with love poetry, a canister or two of 
Lisbon snuff, which was allowed to besmear the upper lip, with the idea that it im¬ 
parted an air of peculiar sagacity to the whole countenance. A smelling-bottle and 
trinkets completed the group. He arose at twelve, and completed his toilet by three 
o’clock, during which time he well perfumed his clothes ; soaked his hands in washes 
to make them white and delicate^ tinged his cheeks with carmine so as to give them a 
gentle blush; arranged a few patches a on his face to give the effect of 
z \ ih, p. .■-<>. mo j e g au Q dimples; dipped his handkerchief in rose-water and powdered 
his linen. The tying of his cravat and the adjustment of his wig and hat were mat¬ 
ters of grave importance. Then he practjggd attitudes and smiles before his looking- 
glass, dressed, and was carried to a coffee or chocolate house, where he displayed his 
wit and gallantry, kissing a tailor’s bill that he pulled from his pocket, saying it was 
a sweet billet-doux from his mistress. He insulted with impunity, by impertinent con¬ 
versation, the usually pretty barmaid of the coffee-house, and after spending an hour 
there repaired to the theatre, where he shifted himself from boxes to pit, in order to 
display himself and the glittering ring upon his finger, as he conspicuously took 
pinches of snuff. He considered it shockingly vulgar to attend to the play, so he 
turned his back upon the stage. After having exhibited himself to his satisfaction at 
the. theatre he would go to the park, arid there, fluttering from lady to lady in never- 
ceasing shallow chattering, would be rewarded with many a tap of a fan on his 
shoulder, and the endearing epithets, “ Mad fellow 1 ” “ Dear, tormenting devil! ” 


581 


Chapter Y.j THE HOUSE OF BRUNSWICK. 

Shallow Education. Comparative purity of the Rural Population. 

tions in the business of courtship. Set phrases were always used. 
Angels, seraphs, goddesses, furies, sweet Paphian delights, Venus, 
Cupid, Hymen, rack, tortures, and demons, were words ever on the 
lips of lovers. 

§ 36. So shallow was the education of women, and so vicious their 
moral and intellectual training, that they received all this hollow 
flattery and apparent devotion as truth. A fashionable woman 
was considered sufficiently educated when she could barely read 
and write, and had learned enough of the conventional etiquette of 
society to enable her to not offend its rules. She went into society 
at the age of fourteen or fifteen years. Her reading (if she read 
at all) was limited an,d demoralizing, consisting chiefly of the 
worthless and often licentious productions of current literature, 
and the equally corrupting plays of the period. A young gentle¬ 
man was considered fitted for any business of life when he had 
mastered a certain amount of Greek and Latin, and could write a 
few shallow verses. Then he travelled; came home with foreign 
airs, vices, and follies, and plunged into all the excesses of social 
dissipation. Gambling, and often excessive drinking, were com¬ 
mon to both sexes, and all other vices were in their train. The 
ignorance, frivolity, and viciousness of the aristocracy of that pe¬ 
riod was amazing. Superstition flourished. Credulity made 
rich harvest-fields for charlatans of every kind, especially in the 
medical profession ; and fortune-tellers were the most revered pro¬ 
phets of that “ higher class” of men and women who seldom fre¬ 
quented places of worship, and who knew little of the moral pre¬ 
cepts contained in the Scriptures. 

§ 37. The vices and frivolities of the court and metropolis de¬ 
scended, in some degree, to the “ common people ” and the rural 
districts, and yet so strong was the barrier of class, that the coun¬ 
try remained comparatively pure. While vicious plays, bull-baits, 
and prize-fights were delighting. the Londoners, fox-hunting, 
shooting-matches, foot-ball, cricket, and many rude but healthful 
rural sports were delighting the country squires and their tenantry 
and neighbors. The country ladies were a quiet, home-loving 
race, taking great pleasure in being Lady Bountifuls to the poor. 
Christmas was the great feast-time, when sober beverages and 
wholesome food abounded. The manners of the 

a § 1, p. 352. 

peasantry were as simple as in the days of Elizabeth. 11 
Education was as limited as then, and superstition was as prev- 


582 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book X. 

Amusements. Drunkenness and Pauperism. Fortune-telling. 

alcnt and powerful. 1 In out-of-door sports sucli as foot-ball, 
cudgel-playing, and racing—the girls participated with the young 
men. Grinning and whistling matches 2 were favorite amusements 
at country fairs. Excessive beer-drinking became a pievailing 
vice, and in towns gin-drinking became so terrible in its effects 
that parliament passed acts for restraining intemperance. Pauper¬ 
ism fearfully "increased toward the close of the reign of George 
the Second, and the workhouses established by his immediate 
predecessor were tilled with the indigent. The condition of the 
“ common people ” at that period—morally, intellectually, and coi- 
poreally—was a disgrace to the wealthy and enlightened Christian 
nation whose aristocracy was pampered by a wasteful prodigality' 

of luxurious and sensual indulgences. 

§ 38. George the Third, his Queen, and court, almost instantly 
made a salutary impression. The sovereigns were moral and reli¬ 
gious. The purification of the nation began with their accession, 
and it has worked surely and potentially ever since, in spite of the 
vicious influence of the regency and reign of George the Fourth. 
No aristocracy on the earth is so pure and truly noble as that of 
England. 


CHAPTER VI. 

Reign of Wikliam tiie Fourth [a.d. 1830 to 1837]. 

§ 1. A good man took the seat of the last George, as sovereign 
of England. During his earlier manhood he was in active service 

i A damsel anxious to know something of her destined husband was directed to run 
until she was out of breath so soon as she heard the first notes of the cuckoo, after 
which, on pulling off her shoe, she expected to find in it a hair of the same color as that 
of her future mate. If she -washed to see his full person, she was to sow hemp-seed on 
Midsummer Eve. and command her lover, in a rhyming couplet, to follow and mow; 
when, behold, on looking over her shoulder she would see him at her heeks. The first 
bachelor a girl met on St. Valentine’s morning was supposed to be her destined hus¬ 
band. If on May-day a girl brought home a snail and put it upon the ashes of the 
hearth, the little reptile in crawling about would mark the initials of her true lover’s 
name: or if she pared a pippin and threw the rind over her head, it would, on falling, 
form such initial. If a girl suspected her lover of inconstancy, she had only to purloin 
his garter and tie it with her own, in a true-love knot, to bind his heart to her beyond 
the power of escaping. 

- The candidates for the prize grinned hideously through horse-collars; and in 



583 


Chapter VIJ THE HOUSE OF BRUNSWICK. 

Accession of William the Fourth. Condition of Europe. 

in the royal navy; and all through life he had the easy, affable 
manners of a seaman, without the least sign of pretence because 
of his rank and station. He was the third son of George the 
Third, and was in the sixty-fifth year of his age when he ascended 
the throne,, in the summer of 1830, with the title of William the 
Fourth. He had married, in 1818, Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen, 
by whom he had two daughters, who died very young. His ac¬ 
cession was hailed with delight by the people. Unlike his brother, 
the Duke of York, he had never taken any part in politics, but he 
was believed to incline to the Whigs. He, however, retained his 
brother’s ministers in office until their late allies voted them out 
on a money question, a few months after his accession. 

§ 2. At the time of William’s accession Europe was violently 
agitated by a revolutionary spirit which was evidently widespread 
and powerful. It broke out into open manifestation in France. 
Louis the Eighteenth, though placed upon the throne by the aid 
of foreign powers, had maintained his position in peace; but his 
brother, who succeeded him in 1824, as Charles the Tenth, was so 
utterly regardless of the chartered rights of the people that he 
was driven from his seat [July, 1830], and was succeeded by his 
cousin, the Duke of Orleans, who was called to the 
throne by Lafayette a and others [Aug. 7, 1830], as a ^ 3 °’ P ' 54G ’ 
constitutional monarch, with the title of Louis Philippe, King 
of the French. 

§ 3. The revolutionary spirit now spread rapidly. In Belgium, 
in Brunswick, in Poland, the people rose in arms, and even far- 
distant Brazil, in South America, expelled its emperor, a Portu¬ 
guese prince,—an event that led to a sanguinary war in Europe 
shortly afterward. The Duke of Wellington saw in these commo¬ 
tions a warning that alarmed him, and he declared that he w T ould 
not begin a reform demanded by popular clamor that might end in 
a revolution. This unpopular declaration, followed by the Duke 
advising the king not to attend the Lord Mayor’s dinner [Novem¬ 
ber 9, 1830] for fear of a popular tumult, caused a great panic, as 
there seemed to be indications of a revolution, and the funds fell 
three per cent. A few days later, in a debate on the Civil List, the 
ministry were defeated [November 15, 1830], and ^ ^ ^ 

they resigned. 1 * The Whigs then came into office, ’ P ' 


whistling, the person who could whistle through a whole time without being put out by 
the drolleries of merry-makers was the victor. 


584 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book X. 

Refcxm Measures. Change in Representation. Affairs in Ireland. 

after an ^absence of more than twenty years, and declared their 
intention to press reform measures in parliament. 

§ 4. Earl Grey was the premier, and he had the strength of 
Lords Brougham, Lansdowne, Palmerston, and Melbourne as his 
associates. Lord John Russell was the leader of the House of 
Commons. By the latter a reform bill was introduced in March, 
1831, but it appeared far too sweeping a change to many, and the 
ministers, after carrying the second reading by a majority of one 
only, suffered defeat in committee, and dissolved the parliament. 
A new House of Commons, elected under great excitement, passed 
the bill [June 24, 1831]; but the Peers rejected it on the second 
reading, on the 7th of October following. Desperate riots and 
bloodshed followed in many places, but particularly at Notting¬ 
ham, where the castle was destroyed, and at Bristol, where several 
public buildings were burnt and one hundred persons were killed 
or wounded. Early in the following year the bill was again passed 
by the Commons [March, 1832], when the Duke of Wellington, 
and about one hundred peers who had hitherto opposed it, alarmed 
by the rumblings of the revolutionary volcano, withdrew from their 
House, by agreement, so as to leave a majority for the bill. It 
finally became law in June following. 

§ 5. The Reform Bill provided for depriving of representation 
in parliament boroughs having a population of less than 2,000, 
and allowing only one representative for boroughs having less 
than 4,000. The effect of the act was to take 143 members from 
decayed boroughs, and to bestow them partly on counties, but 
chiefly on manufacturing towns of importance, where, generally 
speaking, Liberal ideas prevailed. Between forty and fifty new 
boroughs were created. The larger counties were divided into dis¬ 
tricts, and the elective franchise, regulated by property qualifica¬ 
tions, was greatly extended. The carrying of this 
* § 23, p. 4 1 8. was undoubtedly as great a revolution in gov¬ 
ernment as any that had taken place since that of 1688. ft 

§ 6. At this time the state of Ireland was frightful. It was on 
the verge of revolution and civil war. The Roman Catholics had 
been favored by political emancipation; but there were other bur¬ 
dens of which the members of that church complained. Among 
these was the levying of tithes for the support of the 
b § 19, P. 477. establislied church which was equally distasteful 
to Romanists and Protestant dissenters. b The resistance to the col- 


Chapter VI.] THE HOUSE OF BRUNSWICK. 585 

Irish Coercion Bill. Revolution threatened. Agitators in and out of Parliament. 

lection of tithes was so violent that it was abandoned. Collectors 
were murdered orTSmmed, and there were frequent hostile engage¬ 
ments between the police and the peasantry. To remedy the 
growing evil of insubordination, the government introduced a 
Coercion Bill, which, while it offered a remedy for many things 
complained of, empowered the Lord-lieutenant of Ireland to pre¬ 
vent all public meetings supposed to be of a dangerous character, 
and to place disturbed districts under martial law. 

§ 7. The Reformed Parliament met on the 5th of February, 1838, 
when the king found that partisan politicians had arranged mat¬ 
ters in connection with the franchise to subserve their own party 
interests. Population was professedly the guide, but the disfran¬ 
chising process had been so managed that many inconsiderable 
places, where Whig leaders had influence, had been spared the 
pruning-knife. The honest king was offended, and ever after¬ 
wards he distrusted the Whig party. But they were too powerful 
then to heed his displeasure. There was an overwhelming ma¬ 
jority of Reformers in the House of Commons, and at one time 
fears were entertained that the church, the aristocracy, and all of 
the privileged institutions would be swept away. Nothing but the 
natural conservatism of Englishmen preserved them. Sir Robert 
Peel, who had offended the Tory party by his liber- ^ ^ ^ 
jality, R had again become their trusted leader, and 
stood at the head of a Conservative party in the kingdom, com¬ 
posed of men of all shades in politics. The Tories now dropped, 
their old name and called themselves Conservatives. Peel’s-Or- *' 
ganization of the party was admirable, and they had a promise of 
a return to official power. 

§ 8. The noted William Cobbett b had a seat in the new parlia¬ 
ment as a representative of a Lancashire borough, b§g6 p g5g 
and Daniel O’ Connell c was also there. They were the c § 6 ’ p ’ m ’ 
agitators of reforms which alarmed all property-hold¬ 
ers. Cobbett proposed such changes in relation to the currency 
as amounted almost to the repudiation of the national debt; 
while O’Connell, with threats and arguments, 

d § ofo, p. 54y. 

demanded a repeal of the union of Ireland with 
Great Britain. 3 The latter had many and powerful partisans. 
And while these leaders of factions were pressing their measures 
a numerous body called Chartists 1 had appeared. Their friends 

i Composed chiefly of the working people of England, who demanded what they 


586 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book X. 

Abolition of Slavery. Further Reforms demanded. Change of Ministry. 

in parliament declared that the Reform Bill had only transferred 
power from the Tories to the Whigs, and fell far short of what 
the people rightfully demanded. They were, in fact, the revived 
Radicals of 1816, a and, like them, held many and 

§ 57, p. 55 . 0 ^ en tumultuous popular meetings. Soon after this 
Trades Unions rose into notice, and caused riots in many places. 

§ 9. Two important questions occupied much of the attention 
of parliament in 1883. These were, the abolition of slavery and 
amendment of the poor-laws. The popular agitation in England 
of the subject of slavery had made its impression on the colonies 
where it existed, and where there were many very intelligent men 
of color, chiefly mulattoes. These impressions finally excited ac¬ 
tion, and caused servile insurrections in Jamaica and the Mauritius. 
Wilberforce, Fowell Buxton, and others had for years urged the 
abolition of slavery, and they now had the satisfaction of seeing 
the ripe fruit of their benevolent efforts in the passage of an act 
[August 28,1833] for its total extinction throughout the British do¬ 
minions-, for the promotion of industry among their slaves, and for 
compensation to the slave-holders for their losses. For the latter 
purpose the sum of £20,000,000, or $100,000,000, was appropri¬ 
ated. Slavery terminated on the first of August, 1834. 

§ 10. Before the poor-law question could be reached there was 
a change in the administration. Earl Grey had not met the expec¬ 
tations of the people. He had commenced his administration with 
promises of reform and retrenchment of expenses, but had made 
little progress in either. The Reform Act was already declared to 
stand in need of reform; the retrenchment consisted chiefly in re¬ 
ducing the army -and navy to a dangerous weakness; and the pro¬ 
fessed desire for peace had for its commentary the guaranteeing 
by England of the thrones of the young queens of Spain and Portu¬ 
gal, which threatened to involve the country in war with half the 
nations of Europe. At length a proposed extension of the Irish 
Coercion Bill b brought a crisis in the administration. 
Grey was so stung by some remarks made by O’Con¬ 
nell that he suddenly resigned his office, in July, 1834. Lord 
Melbourne now became prime minister, and a new poor-law was 
speedily passed, which was generally considered so harsh in its 


called the Feople's Charter, the six points of which were: Universal Suffrage , Vote by 
Ballot, Annual Parliaments , Payment of the Members, the Abolition of the Property 
Qualification (which was enacted in June, 1858), and Equal Electoral Districts. 


587 


Chapter VI.] THE HOUSE OF BRUNSWICK. 

Reform Measures. Interference in Foreign Affairs. 

provisions that it was actually oppressive. It was modified, and 
has worked beneficently. Melbourne was not much liked by the 
king, and the monarch observed w 7 ith satisfaction the steady Con¬ 
servative reaction which justified him at length in summarily dis¬ 
missing Melbourne [Nov., 1834] and calling Peel a to 
the premiership. The Duke of Wellington was called § 7 ’ p - 5S5 - 
to the Foreign Secretaryship. The new ministers dissolved the par¬ 
liament, hoping by a new election to have a supporting legislature. 
They were disappointed, for on the assembling of parliament they 

found themselves in a minority, and in April, 1835, 

J 1 ’ b § 4, p. 500. 

were compelled to resign, b when the Melbourne minis¬ 
try, with the exception of Lord Brougham, returned to office. 

§ 11. The Melbourne ministry was now in alliance with O’Connell 
and the Irish members, and proceeded to carry out other reforms. 
The most prominent of these were the Municipal Reform Bill, and 
a bill to allow dissenters, or non-conformists, 0 to 

° § 19, p. 477. 

marry in their own chapels. They also carried 
measures for tithe commutation i [Aug. 13, 1836], and a general 
Registration Act. These measures, all tending to greater freedom 
and power on the part of the people, were met by opposition at 
every step, even by the Conservatives, whose very name implies a 
willingness to allow things to remain as they were in England, in 
. defiance of the disturbing pressure of the manifested progressive 
spirit of the age. They received important modifications at the 
hands of Sir Robert Peel. 

§ 12. Allusion has been made to the proposition of the Grey 

ministry to guarantee the thrones of Spain and Portugal to young 

queens. During several years of William’s reign there were fierce 

strifes in both countries, in which Englishmen took a prominent 

part, though war was never declared. Don Pedro, the expelled 

Emperor of Brazil,' 1 went to Europe, and sought to 

L L . d § 3, p. 583. 

place his daughter, Donna Maria, on her rightful 

throne of Portugal, which his younger brother, who had been re¬ 
gent, had usurped. Pedro sought aid from England, and was 
allowed to raise quite a powerful force there; and Admiral Napier, 
of the British navy, was appointed to command Pedro’s fleet. 
Napier soon decided the contest in favor of the young queen by 

1 Tithes, or tenths, were first claimed in England by Augustin, and were allowed 
by Ethelbert, about the year 600. By a constitutional decree made in an English synod 
in 786 they were enjoined, and in a general assembly held by Ethelwold, in 844, tithes 
were first granted to the English clergy. 


588 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book X. 

Civil War in Spain meddled with. War with the Chinese. 

capturing the whole of Miguel’s fleet off Cape St. Vincent on the 
3d of July, 1833. For this exploit his own sovereign created him 
Count Cape St.-Vincent, and Donna Maria made him a first-class 
grandee of Portugal. 

§ 13. This war for the succession in Portugal had scarcely con¬ 
cluded when another broke out in Spain. King Ferdinand had 
been persuaded to set aside the Salic Law of the Bourbons, that 
allowed no woman to reign, and his young daughter Isabella, now 
[1871] in exile, was made his successor in 1833, when she was less 
than three years of age, to the prejudice of her uncle, Don Carlos. 
She was placed under the guardianship of her mother, Queen 
Christina. Don Carlos resolved to vindicate his asserted right un¬ 
der the Salic Law. A fierce civil war ensued, in which the parties 
took respectively the names of Cariists and Christinos. As queer 
Christina promised a liberal government, England became a party 
to the Quadruple Alliance, 1 which guaranteed the succession to the 
Spanish and Portuguese thrones. A legion (10,000 men) was 
allowed to be raised in England for the service of little Isabella; 
but the Spaniards looked upon these foreign troops with jealousy. 
The legion suffered severe losses by sickness and otherwise, without 
the opportunity of acquiring much military glory. The survivors 
returned to England in 1837; but the war continued three years 
longer, and was then decided in favor of Isabella by Merato, a 
C&rlist general, who joined her troops. 

§ 14. William’s reign was marked by the beginning of an unho-^ 
ly war against-the ChiUegto by British forces, with the av’owed ob¬ 
ject of-compelling the Chinese government to allow trade in opium, 
which had been the means of injuring the health and corrupting 
the morals of millions of its people. For a long time the trade in 
opium, raised in the British possessions in India, with the Chinese 
had been enormously profitable, for the inhabitants of China ea¬ 
gerly sought the happy delirium of the drug. Their government, 
seeing its pernicious effects, endeavored to suppress the traffic, but 
the British continued it in spite of laws. -'So persistent were thej 
in this that the emperor became exasperated, andKwhen an Eng¬ 
lish embassy under Lord Amherst reached Pekin, in 1816, he re- 

1 There jvas a Quadruple Alliance formed between Great Britain, France, and the 
Emperor of Germany, in 1718 and 1719, for the purpose of guaranteeing 
the succession of the reigning families of Great Britain and France, 14 $ p- *&■ 
and settling the partition of the Spanish monarchy.» It led to war. 


589 


Cn apt Eli VI.] THE HOUSE OF BRUNSWICK. 

The Opium Trade. Death of King William. Treaty with China. 

fused to see them. Then followed such rigid prohibitory laws 
that, in course of time, the traffic was almost destroyed, to the relief 
of the Chinese from the great curse. The British 

. » § oo, p. 5oU. 

government in India a resolved to protect its subjects 
in the nefarious trade, and the home government sent armed ves¬ 
sels to Canton in 1831 and 1834 to intimidate the Chinese govern¬ 
ment. They failed to do so. But at the same time English smug¬ 
glers of the drug were furnished with armed ships to carry on the 
injurious trade. The energetic Governor Lin, of Canton, was 
aroused. He concentrated there a large force and compelled Brit¬ 
ish merchants to deliver up all their stock of opium, worth $20,- 
000,000, which was destroyed in March, 1839. Then the use of 
opium was made a capital crime. An army was sent from India 
to co-operate with the English warships against the Chinese 
towns and fortifications, when the English naval forces took the 
island of Hong Kong, and the India army put Canton to ransom 
and occupied several ports. By treaty in 1842, Hong Kong was 
ceded to the English, and an indemnity of $21,000,000 was paid 
to them ; and in 1843 the trade with China was opened to all na¬ 
tions. This was a gain for the interests of commerce and civiliza¬ 
tion. The terms of the treaty were not observed by the opium- 
traders, and after disputes and skirmishes another war broke out. 

§ 15. While the troubles in the East and the reform measures in 
parliament were going on, the aged king’s strength began to fail, 
and in May, 1837, when he was in the seventy-second year of his age, 
he was seized withr^angerous illness. But ever kindly in feeling, 
he gave a ball in honor of the birthday [May 24] and the majority 
of his niece Victoria, the heir to the throne he was about to leave. 
He sent her an elegant piano as his present on the occasion; and 
he afterward, when in an almost dying condition, sent a request to 
the Duke of Wellington not to omit the usual dinner on the anni- 
versary of the victory at Waterloo. b He failed rapidly, b g 55 p 557 
and at two o’clock in the morning of the 20th of June, 
he died. The Archbishop of Canterbury was with him. A short time 
after the king’s departure, three carriages drove up and speedily bore 
away the Primate, the Earl of Albemarle, and Sir Henry Halford the 
royal physician, to Kensington Palace, where, on their arrival at 
five o’clock, the Duchess of Kent, and her daughter Victoria, then 
become queen, stood in the morning sunlight expecting the news. 
The messengers of the solemn tidings then rode away, and very 


590 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book X. 

Accession of Victoria. Her Popularity. Insurrectionary Spirit prevailing. 

soon the proclamation went forth that the king was dead and Vic¬ 
toria was monarch of Great Britain. 


CHAPTER TO 


Reign of Victoria, [from a.d. 1837.] 


a § 15, p. 589. 


b § 10, p. 519. 


§ 1. Victoria, the only child of Edward Duke of Kent, a who 
died long before, had just passed her eighteenth birth¬ 
day when she was called to occupy the British throne. 
Tlie immediate political effect of that accession was the dissolu¬ 
tion of the connection between the crowns of England and Han¬ 
over^ The succession of the latter had been settled 
only in the male line, and it now became the inherit¬ 
ance of Ernest Duke of Cumberland, the eldest surviving son of 
George the Third. The young Queen was received by the people 
with great joy, and entered upon her duties while millions of loyal 
subjects were invoking the choicest blessings of Heaven upon her¬ 
self and her reign. Lord Melbourne was retained as premier, with 
his associates in the Cabinet, the most active of whom was Lord 
John Russell, whose zeal in favor of the Dissenters 0 
was shown by his pressing several measures for their 
benefit, such as the abolition of church rates; but he could not 
succeed in carrying them. 

§ 2. An -insurrectionary spirit was now abroad in England and 
in some of her colonies. The Chartist leaders d were 
very active in fanning the discontents of the working- 
classes, which were intensified by a dearth of food, caused by the 
unfavorable harvests ©f 1838, and consequent distress among the 
poor. In the autumn of 1838, many large Chartist meetings were 
held in the northern counties, and when the shorter days came 
they were held by torch-light. At one of them, near Manchester, 
200,000 persons were present. In the following year a National 
Convention was gathered in London, composed of delegates from 
the working-classes, and a petition was presented by it so numer¬ 
ously signed that it was necessary to roll it into the House of 
Commons in half a cask. That body refused t© receive it, when 


> § 11, p. 587. 


d § 8, p. 585. 



591 


Chapter VII.] THE HOUSE OF BRUNSWICK. 

Insurrection in Canada. Domestic Agitations. Affairs in the Ease Indies. 

riots occurred in many places. At Newport the disturbance was 
suppressed at the cost of about twenty-five lives. 

§ 3. Meanwhile an insurrection had broken out in Canada, where 
discontents from causes inseparable from colonial relations had 
prevailed for a long time. This occurred at about the time of the 
queen’s accession. We have observed that the American Loyal¬ 
ists,® who settled in Western or Upper Canada, had a g 24 p 544 
remained firm in their allegiance down to the close of 
the war in 1815. After that many thousands of persons from the 
United States, attracted by the fertility of the soil, settled among 
them, and there widely diffused their Republican spirit, not only 
among the descendants of those Loyalists, but also among the 
French settlers in Lower Canada and later colonists from England. 
The insurrection had for its object the establishment of an inde¬ 
pendent government. Large numbers of persons in the United 
States, chiefly young men living along the borders, sympathized 
with the struggling colonists and went over to their aid. The 
rising was put down. Some persons taken in arms were hanged, 
others were transported, while others suffered confiscation of prop¬ 
erty. 

§ 4. While the Chartist agitation was at its height, a more order¬ 
ly and dignified movement for the benefit of the people was going 
on. This was the work of the Anti-Corn-Law League, which was 
formed at Manchester, in September, 1838, having for its object 
the abolition of the restrictions upon the importation of grain and 
the promotion of free-trade principles. The most influential 
member of that League was the late Richard Cobden, in whom 
the people had unbounded confidence. 

§ 5. Jealousy of the power of Russia in interfering with British 
India, by promoting discontent among the native princes and peo¬ 
ple, caused a large army to be sent out to counteract the machina¬ 
tions of the great Northern power. The army entered Cabul, and 
placed on the throne [a.d. 1839] Shah Soojah, the son of a prince 
driven out thirty years before, instead of Dost Mahommed, sup¬ 
posed to be a pensioner of Russia. In 1841 the country rose in re¬ 
bellion. The British army was compelled to retreat, and perished 
almost utterly among the mountain passes. The Shah was put to 
death soon afterward. 

§ 6. In 1842 an “ avenging expedition ” was sent into that coun¬ 
try, which committed great havoc and then withdrew; but the fate 


592 


HISTORY OF EXGLAND. 


[Book X. 


War with Egypt. Marriage of Queen Victoria. 

of the former had made a deep impression, and several of the native 

States ventured again to take arms. The Mahrattas were routed 

at Maharajpoor [a.d. 1843], and the Sikhs atMoodkee, Ferozeshah, 

and Sobraon [a.d. 1845, 1846], and the large province of Scinde 

were added to the British Indian Empire. a But the 
<* § 33, p. 602. . . . , „ , _ f. . 

impression remained that it would not be impossible 

to overthrow that empire, and it gave rise to a still more formida¬ 
ble outbreak a few years later. 

§ 7. There was another war in the year 1839, having the preser¬ 
vation of the Turkish empire for its professed object, but was 
prompted quite as much by jealousy of the designs of Russia as 
the Cabul war had been. Mehemet Ali, the pasha of Egypt, whose 
fleet was destroyed at Navarino, b had since made war 

b § 9, p. 564. 

successfully against his master the Sultan. In 1839 
he was in possession of Syria, and was known to be abetted by both 
France and Russia. As he refused to withdraw on the joint demand 
of Turkey, England, and Austria, a fleet was sent to coerce him. 
The Syrians, who had been much oppressed by the pasha, were sup¬ 
plied with arms and money, and rose against him. A camp of 
English marines was formed at the foot of Lebanon; the famous 
cities of Tyre, Sidon, Berytus, and Acre were taken, and the Egyp¬ 
tian troops, after a defeat among the mountains, left the country. 
Soon afterward the pasha’s own chief port, Alexandria, was in 
danger, for the French ministry, which had promised him its sup¬ 
port, was overawed by the English fleet, and abandoned him. At 
this crisis Commodore Napier, to whom most of the successes in 
Syria were owing, adroitly took advantage of the pasha’s alarm, 
and, on his own responsibility, concluded a treaty with him [a.d. 
1841], which closed the war. After some little delay the treaty 
was ratified by the government; and it is in virtue of this that 
Egypt is now an hereditary monarchy in all but in name. 

§ 8. Whilst these wars were going on, the queen married her 
cousin, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg, of whom she was deeply 
enamored. He was a man of refined taste and most benevolent 
and enlightened views, and he was the means of conferring many 
essential benefits on his adopted country; Breaking through the 
routine of former reigns, the queen and her consort visited the 
continent, and yearly took up their summer residence in Scot¬ 
land. Ireland was less visited, as its climate was found not to 
agree with the health of her Majesty. Besides, that island, for 


593 


Ciiafteii VII.] THE HOUSE OF BRUNSWICK. 

Affairs in Ireland. Com Law, and Anti-Com-Law League. 

several years, was not a country that could be visited with pleasure 
by a British sovereign, for O’Connell, having achieved Catholic 
Emancipation, had turned his attention to obtaining # ^ ^ 

a repeal of the Union. 11 Weekly meetings were held ’ P ‘ 
in Conciliation Hall, in Dublin, and “ monster meetings ” were 
held in various parts of the country. 

§ 9. Tara Hill was a favorite place of assemblage. It was an an¬ 
cient seat of Irish monarchy, and O’Connell was popularly regard¬ 
ed as the “uncrowned king” of the country. Large sums were 
coHected for the Agitator, and the country seemed to be on the 
verge of revolution at one time. But the great Irish leader was 
too useful to the Whig ministry in other matters for them to venture 
to interfere with him. 

§ 10. The Melbourne ministry, never veiy strong, were made un¬ 
popular among the Protestant inhabitants of the realm because of 
their close alliance with O’Connell; and when, in the spring of 
1841, Sir Robert Peel carried a resolution of want of confidence 
in them, by a single vote, they resigned. Peel then became pre¬ 
mier the second term, with a strong cabinet, in which the Duke of 
Wellington took a seat without any office. He found the finances 
of the country in a bad state, owing to the false economy of his 
predecessor, and to put the exchequer in a more satisfactory con¬ 
dition, he introduced and carried [a.d. 1842] a new and more 
satisfactory corn-law; an act imposing an income-tax of seven- 
pence sterling in the pound—a measure formerly employed only in 
time of war—and a customs act repealing several oppressive duties. 
These measures were opposed by the Conservatives, 15 b § 1;l p 587 
the great body of whom refused to follow Peel, and 
because of their adhesion to the principle of levying heavy duties 
they were henceforth called Protectionists, with Lord Stanley as 
their leader. 

§ 11. The Anti-Corn-law League 0 continued to keep up an agita¬ 
tion which greatly embarrassed the premier. It had c g 4 p 590 
a powerful coadjutor in Providence. The summer 
of 1845 was wet and cold, and the harvest was deficient not only 
in Great Britain but throughout Europe. In Ireland, almost the 
entire, potato crop—the food staple of the peasantry—was diseased, 
and this calamity, repeated the next year, produced a famine in 
whole districts. To relieve the distress, parliament voted £10,000,- 
000, or $50,000,000. This state of things gave the League power- 


594 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 


[Book X. 


O’Connell and O’Brien. 


Revolutions. 


‘ § 10, p. 593. 


Ireland agitated. 

ful arguments; and when, in the spring of 1846, storms and 
showers were frequent, the popular cry was, “ It rains repeal.” The 
premier could stand the pressure no longer, and he procured a re¬ 
peal of the obnoxious bill [June, 1846], to take effect gradually. 

This offended the great body of his supporters a second 
time,' 1 and he retired to private life. 

§ 12. Ireland was still agitated and distressed. O’Connell was no 
more her champion. In the height of his power, and while in at¬ 
tendance upon a “ monster meeting,” he was arrested [October 14, 
1843], by order of the premier (Peel), and tried and condemned, 
with some coadjutors, for conspiracy and sedition, by the Court of 
Queen’s Bench, in Dublin. The judgment was afterward reversed 
by the House of Lords, as a matter of State policy and necessity; 
but it was a severe blow to the great Agitator. His health was 
then failing. He went to the continent with a hope of regaining 
it, but died at Genoa, in May, 1847. His mantle of influence in 
Ireland fell upon weaker shoulders, and when, in 1848, there was 
made a feeble attempt at insurrection, William Smith O’Brien as¬ 
sumed to take the great Agitator’s place as leader. He failed. 
The rising was put down, and O’Brien and several of his associates 
were found guilty of high treason. The death penalty was com¬ 
muted to banishment to the penal colony of Botany Bay. 

§ 13. Lord John Russell b became premier on the retirement of 
Peel, and held the post, though amid much discontent 


b § 4, p. 584. 
c § 2, p. 583. 


at home and numerous revolutions abroad, until 1852. 
Louis Philippe c was expelled from France and a re¬ 
public established ; the whole of Italy was convulsed and the Pope 
driven from Rome; the Hungarians rose in arms, and the Poles 
made some feeble efforts to imitate them ; whilst Smith O’Brien 
made his abortive insurrection in Ireland, and 20,000 Chartists as¬ 
sembled in London [April 10,1848] for the purpose of presenting 
a petition to parliament. Smith O’Brien’s party were dispersed by 
the police, and the Duke of Wellington took such effective mili¬ 
tary precautions in London, in connection with 150,000 citizens, 
who were enrolled as special constables, as prevented any mis¬ 
chief being done on that occasion. 

§ 14. Scarcely had the excitement on these matters subsided 
when the Pope (now returned to Rome, and protected by a French 
army) named Dr. Wiseman a cardinal, and twelve other clergymen 
bishops of sees created for them by his authority in England. This 


* 

Chapter VII. J THE HOUSE OF BRUNSWICK. 595 

The First Crystal Palace. Death of Wellington. Alliance with France. 

invasion of the queen’s prerogative was greatly resented. An act 
called the Ecclesiastical Titles Bill was passed [August, 1851], 
forbidding the use of these titles under a penalty of £100, and 
the alarm soon subsided. 

§ 15. The following year saw the first of those exhibitions of 
the products of all nations that have since become so common 
and which was considered as symbolical of free-trade principles. 
Prince Albert a was its great promoter, and it was 
held in an enormous building in Hyde Park, where a ^ 8 ’ p ‘ 
his Memorial now stands, known as the Crystal Palace, it being 
composed of iron and glass. The second exhibition was held on 
the same spot, in 1862; but it had not the advantage of the Prince’s 
guidance, for he had died, after a brief illness, not long before. 
The Exhibition building was styled by hopeful men the Temple of 
Peace, and the advocates of free-trade declared that nations were 
now so united by their commercial interests that war was no longer 
possible. Happily in one sense, but unfortunately in another, 
statesmen, who hold in their hands the issues of peace and war, 
did not share the pleasant delusion, and the army and navy were 
not dismissed as useless, for one of England’s greatest wars was 
at hand. 

§ 16. Lord John Bussell b was compelled to resign 
early in 1852, and was succeeded by Lord Stanley, 
who had then become Earl of Derby. But the life of that 
cabinet was short. Derby failed to carry some favorite measures, 
even after he had resorted to the measure of dissolving the parlia¬ 
ment, and in December following he also was compelled to re¬ 
tire. He was succeeded by Lord Aberdeen, who formed a sort of 
coalition cabinet. Meanwhile the great captain and statesman, 
the Duke of Wellington, had expired, and been honored by a 
magnificent public funeral. 

§ 17. The Aberdeen Cabinet now entered into an alliance with 
the Emperor of the French for the purpose of preventing Russia 
from overrunning and crushing Turkey, which seemed to be its de¬ 
sign. That emperor was an unscrupulous adventurer, who, by the 
prestige of the name and deeds of his uncle, the Emperor Napo¬ 
leon, was elected President of the French Republic established in 
1848, after the flight of Louis Philippe.® By fraud 
and force he seized the government [December 2, 

1851], dissolved the existing Constitution, made himself supreme 


» § 13, p. 594. 


> § 13, p. 594. 


59G 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book X. 

English Troops on the Danube. Demands of Russia. Preparations for War. 

ruler of France, and, in 1853, re-established the empire of his 
uncle. With this perfidious man England became a partner in a 
war against Russia, declared in 1854, after a year of fruitless nego¬ 
tiation. English troops (the Guards) were sent to the East so 
early as February, 1854, and while they were inactive for months 
among the marshes of the Danube, fever and cholera decimated 
them. 

§ 18. That Russia, under the plea of protection of all the mem¬ 
bers of the Greek Church residing in the Turkish dominions, on 
account of some violence some of them had suffered in Pales¬ 
tine at the hand of Latin monks, designed to seize and hold 
Constantinople and the Turkish empire preparatory to pushing 
conquests eastward, admits of little dispute. The Czar Nicholas 
made the demand for such protection on the Sultan of Turkey. 
It was refused, when Russian troops crossed the frontier into Wal- 
lachia and Moldavia, where they were defeated by Turkish troops 
under Omar Pacha, at Oltenitza, on the 4th of November, 1853. 
And so war was begun several months before it was actually de¬ 
clared. 

§ 19. Nicholas calculated for success on the weakness of Turkey 
—“the sick man,” as he metaphorically called the empire—the 
subservience of Germany, the unsettled state of France, and the con¬ 
nivance of England, which he hoped to bribe by offering Egypt as 
its share of the effects of the “ sick man.” Turkey claimed the 
assistance of England on the faith of treaties: the usurper in France, 
under the title of Napoleon the Third, now bore absolute sway 
over that people, and Austria and Prussia stood aloof. A com¬ 
bined English and French fleet went to the Black Sea, and shut up 
the Russians at Sebastopol, and in 1854 these two governments 
declared war against Russia. The English troops sent to the 
Crimea, on which stands Sebastopol, were commanded by Lord 
Raglan, and the French by Marshal St. Amaud. At the same 
time Sir Charles Napier was despatched to the Baltic with a Brit¬ 
ish fleet. It was not until September that the first troops sent 
out to the Danube were put in motion, and, landing on the Crimea, 
gained the battle of Alma on the 20th of September, 1854. 

§ 20. While English statesmen knew the power of Russia to be 
very great, an English parliamentary orator declared it was a mis¬ 
take, and boasted that the empire of the Czar could be “ crumpled 
up like this sheet of paper,” which he threw on the floor. Tliis 


597 


Chapter YII.J THE HOUSE OF BRUNSWICK. 

War with Russia. Operations in the Baltic. Siege of Sebastopol. 

boast went abroad and its effect was dreaded. The Russians then 
had two strong fleets in the Baltic,-lying in the fortified harbors 
of Cronstadt and Sweaborg. When war was declared they were 
frozen in; but it was feared they would unite in the spring, sail 
out of the Baltic, and retort the boastful language by attempting 
to land on the east coast of England, where so many Norsemen in¬ 
vaders from the same direction a had begun their rav¬ 
ages in the olden time. To prevent this, Napier was “ § P ' 2? ' 
sent to the entrance of the Baltic with fifteen steam-ships before 
the navigation was open. 

§ 21. Napier’s fleet was, when it sailed, fit only for display and 
not for use. The vessels we^e far too large to get near the Rus¬ 
sian fortifications, and they were hurried off with weak, untrained 
crews, and had not pilots, or even a proper supply of ammunition. 
Notwithstanding these disadvantages, the admiral made his pas¬ 
sage through fogs and storms, training his men on the way; but as 
the Russians would not come out to fight, he could only keep 
them blocked up in their harbors, which he had no means of at~ 
tacking, for the gunboats needed for the purpose were never sent 
to him. After a time he was joined by a French squadron, with 
some troops, when the strong fortress of Bomarsund was besieged 
and taken [August 16, 1854], which was the only trophy of the 
war in the Baltic. The French soon after retired; but the English 
admiral remained until the Russians were again rendered safe by 
being frozen in, and did not reach England till near Christmas. 

§ 22. Whilst Napier had been in the Baltic, the allies had fared 
badly in the Crimea. Sebastopol was found to be a far more for¬ 
midable place than had been supposed, and it had a’very strong 
garrison—about 60,000 men in the fortress and on the heights— 
amply supplied, and resolved to hold it to the last extremity. It 
could only be reduced by a regular siege, and the English army 
had arrived without any preparation for passing the winter in so 
rigorous a climate. Beside this, the enemy were numerous and 
active, and the besiegers, consisting of English, French, and Turks, 
were likely to become besieged hi their camps. On the 25th of 
October, an order improperly delivered led Lord Cardigan and 
some 600 light horsemen to attack a complete army of Russians at 
Balaklava, to the south of Sebastopol, in which they lost nearly 
one-half of their number; and on the 5th of November the Rus¬ 
sians became the assailants, in the gray of the morning, at Inker- 


598 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book X. 

Relief for Soldiers. The Baltic Fleet. Death of the Czar. 

man, an exposed part of the English position. The division at¬ 
tacked suffered most severely, and was only saved from destruc¬ 
tion, so overwhelming was the number of the assailants, by the 
opportune succor of a French corps. 

§ 23. The news of these events caused great exertions to be made 
by the public to relieve the w r ants of the troops, and Florence 
Nightingale and many other ladies went out to the East to nurse 
the sick and wounded. But almost as great as these exertions was 
the indignation against the ministers, whose cruel carelessness had 
allowed them to embark in so vast an undertaking with so little 
provision for its success. Just at this time the Baltic fleet returned, 
having accomplished all that it was originally sent to do, namely, 
to prevent the escape of the Russians, and taken Bomarsund into 
the bargain. But the ministers had sent further orders, just as the 
winter was setting in, for Sir Charles to attack Cronstadt, and as 
he had refused to expose his fleet to certain destruction by attempt¬ 
ing to carry out the impossible order, he was deprived of his com¬ 
mand. But he was a man of sense and spirit, and showed so con¬ 
clusively that it was the ministry who were to blame, that they 
were driven from office within a month afterwards [February, 
1855]. 

§ 24. Lord Palmerston, a statesman who had been in office un¬ 
der many previous administrations, and had long been Foreign 
Secretary, now became premier, with several members of the late 
cabinet under him; but the unpopularity of some of them was so 
great, particularly of Sir James Graham, the First Lord of the Ad¬ 
miralty, on whom was laid most of the blame in the Napier mat¬ 
ter, that they were obliged to retire, and the war was thencefor¬ 
ward conducted without any complaints of ministerial neglect, 
though the progress made with the siege of Sebastopol was very 
slow. The Baltic fleet sent out in 1855, under a new commander, 
and supplied with gunboats, trained seamen, pilots, and abundance 
of stores—in short, with all that the former commander asked for 
in vain—never ventured near the formidable Cronstadt, and con¬ 
tented itself with firing on Sweaborg from the safe distance of 
three or four miles. 

§ 25. The Russian emperor died early in the second year of the 
war [March 2, 1855], but this did not bring peace. The army be¬ 
fore Sebastopol was not large enough to invest it completely, and 
supplies were constantly poured in, so that the allies were, in reality, 


599 


Chapter VII.] THE HOUSE OF BRUNSWICK. 

Fall of Sebastopol. Peace. Political Results. China. 

contending against the whole force of the empire. Lord Raglan 
and Marshal St. Amaud, the English and French com¬ 
manders/ 1 died during the siege; but it was carried on ^ 19 ’ P ' °' r> ' 
by their successors, and at last, in September, 1855, after a siege 
for about a year, Sebastopol fell, and the allies stood triumphant 
amid the blood-stained ruins. The blow struck fell very heavy on 
the Russians, and virtually ended the war, as their forts, and docks, 
and a fine fleet, all were destroyed; but the cost to the victors in 
blood and treasure was so great that they were quite ready to lis¬ 
ten to proposals of peace. Accordingly a peace was concluded at 
Paris on the 30th of March, 1856, which gave the Turkish empire 
a little longer breathing-time, and raised the Sardinians to an 
equality with the great powers, they having sent a contingent to 
the Crimea, though with no cause of complaint against Russia, at 
a time when any help was but too welcome. Meanwhile Austria 
and Prussia, whose interest seemed to be in checking the power of 
Russia, held aloof. The political results of the war were the abo¬ 
lition of the Russian protectorate in the Danubian principalities; 
the establishment of the freedom of the Danube and its mouth; 
the banishment of both Russian and Turkish ships of war from the 
Black Sea, excepting a few small vessels as a maritime police, and 
the placing of the protectorate of the Christian subjects of the 
Sultan in the joint hands of the contracting powers. It was 
on this basis that the definitive treaty of peace was signed at 
Paris. 

§ 26. Though the income-tax had been doubled to carry on the 
war, it was found at its close to have added £33,000,000 to the 
national debt; and the rejoicings for the peace had scarcely con¬ 
cluded when news came of fresh difficulties with the 

b § 14 5 p. 588. 

Chinese. b They had seized a smuggling vessel, which ’ 
they were entitled to do under the regulations ; but Sir John Bow- 
ring, the English governor of Hong Kong, c ’with a 

o? o o o o. c § 14 p 588 

seeming readiness to protect the lawbreakers in their 
nefarious trade, took this as a national affront, and bombarded 
Canton. That was in the summer of 1857. This proceeding was 
much discussed in England, and was generally regarded as far too 
high-handed ; but the mischief was done, and another Chinese war 
commenced. This, however, attracted comparatively little atten¬ 
tion at first, from the fact that a war springing out of Russian in¬ 
trigue existed with Persia, and that the British power in India 


600 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book X. 

British Empire in India. Discontents of the Sepoys. 

seemed threatened with ruin from a mutiny in the Sepoy or native 
army at about the same time. 

§ 27. The history of the British empire in India is a history of 
a great wrong, however much the establishment of that empire 
may have conduced to the advancement of civilization and Chris¬ 
tianity. It was begun, as we have seen, by the English East India 
Company. 6 That company became rich and power- 

a § 8, p. 44. fu ^ and in 1698 ob tained a grant of Calcutta and 
two adjoining villages, with a right of jurisdiction over the inhabi¬ 
tants, and leave to erect fortifications. Then the seed of empire 
was planted, but the political power of the company did not begin 
until 1748, when they began making conquests of territory by ex¬ 
pelling native princes from their provinces. So early as 1715 they 
purchased thirty-seven villages contiguous to Calcutta. I he French 
traders in the East became jealous of the increasing power of the 
English-and interfered, but were defeated in 1751, after which the 
company were unrestricted in the pursuit of schemes of aggran¬ 
dizement. X 

§ 28. The government of Warren Hastings was cruel and aggres¬ 
sive, and greatly extended the dominions of the British; and in 
1792, his successor, Lord Cornwallis, compelled Tippoo Sahib, the 
Sultan of Mysore, to give up one-lialf of his dominions and over 
$16,000,000 in bullion. Seven years later Seringapatam was con¬ 
quered, and after a long series of bloody wars, and the exercise on 
the part of the English of measures justified only by the ethics of 
the highwayman, that Might makes Right, the British, in 1849, be¬ 
came masters of almost the entire peninsula of Hindostan, from 
Cape Comorin to the Himalaya Mountains and the Indus. Op¬ 
pression felt, and a perpetual sense of injury, caused revolts, which 
were occasions for terrible deeds on the part of the conquerors as 
well as the conquered. The most conspicuous of these was the 
mutiny of the Sepoys above mentioned. 

§ 29. This powerful body had been raised by the India Com¬ 
pany, and it had acquired a high degree of military efficiency un¬ 
der its English officers. Great regard was always paid to its wishes 
and prejudices, and it remained firmly attached to its white employ¬ 
ers so long as the company was allowed to manage its affairs in 
its own way. Indeed the feeling between each regiment and its 
colonel was something like the tie of clanship among the High¬ 
landers. He was, in Indian phrase, their “ father and mother; ” his 


601 


Chapter VII.] THE HOUSE OF BRUNSWICK. 

Unwise Rule in India. Mutiny. Causes of Exasperation. 

power they regarded as absolute, and he could do no wrong in 
their eyes. But Lord William Bentinck, who was appointed Gov¬ 
ernor-General of India in 1828, put an end to this state of things. 
He was an enthusiastic Liberal, who had tried to govern Sicily in 
a parliamentary way when the British troops held that island 
[a.d. 1812], and he wished to bring all Indian institutions to the 
English model. In the words of the Duke of Wellington, w T ho 
knew him well, “He changed everything and settled nothing.” 

§ 30. Refusing to see how different the circumstances of Eng¬ 
land and India were, and how impossible it was to rule Asiatics 
without an approach to the despotism to which they were accus¬ 
tomed, Lord Bentinck not only reduced the pay of the European 
officers, but stripped them of authority, obliging them to send the 
most trivial complaint to the government, instead of deciding it 
on the spot. The consequence was, that the Sepoys soon lost their 
former feeling of mingled respect and awe, and became turbulent 
and mutinous. Alarmed at this, another Governor-General (Lord 
Dalhousie) retraced some of his predecessor’s steps; but not con¬ 
tent with that, he needlessly irritated the Sepoys by depriving them 
of many long-established privileges, which were not only of mon¬ 
ey value to them—for instance, any cause of theirs in the courts 
was disposed of out of turn; they paid no tolls or customs, and 
their letters were carried free—but a source of pride. Several 
regiments of the Bengal army resented this by absolutely refusing 
to embark for service against the Burmese in 1852, and they were 
allowed to prevail, other forces being substituted. 

§ 31. The army was thus made discontented and aware of its 
power at the same time; and, to increase the danger, the purely 
European ideas of the governors, fresh from England, led them to 
give mortal offence to the native princes. The company had been 
careful to preserve to these the shadow of power, and they cai;ed 
for nothing more. But when Lord Dalhousie seized on the domin¬ 
ions of the King of Oude, on the plea of misgovemment [a.d. 
1856], however true that might be, he alarmed every native chief, 
from the highest to the lowest, and it only wanted a single spark to 
light up the deep discontent into a flame. This was soon supplied 
by the neglect of the prejudices and feelings of the natives, which, 
since a change had been effected in the position of the company, 
had taken the place of the deference formerly paid. 

§ 32. Just about the time of the annexation of Oude, a new 
26 

# 


602 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book IX 

Force of Superstition. Insurrection and Massacre. Insurgents crushed. 

kind of cartridge for the use of the Enfield rifle was issued to the 
native army. In their use these cartridges were greased with 
mutton-fat and wax. The Sepoys were told that it was the fat of 
swine and cows, both abominations to the Hindoos and Mahorn- 
medans, the use of which would affect their social position. The 
deposed king and his crafty minister spread abroad the idea that 
there was some pollution about it, so that all who used it would 
lose caste and at length be forced to become Christians. The 
government unwisely took no steps to explain the matter, and 
when a regiment of cavalry at Meerut refused the cartridges, almost 
100 men were imprisoned. Their comrades at once broke open 
the jail, released them, and also some 1,500 desperate prisoners, 
and at once began murdering every European that they could 
meet. That was on the 10th of May, 1857. They then seized on 
Delhi, where on* of the deposed princes resided, made him their 
king/and invited Hindoos and Mahommedans alike to join them 
in driving the English from India. The city contained a vast 
store of arms, it being a great arsenal, yet without a European 
garrison, and they were well prepared to stand a siege whilst 
awaiting succor. A force was marched against them, but it was 
not till” the month of September that the city was taken, with 
great loss of life. 

§ 83. In the mean time other regiments had risen in every 
quarter, and whilst some marched to join their comrades in Delhi, 
others spread over the country, committing the most horrible atro¬ 
cities. In most cases they commenced with the murder of their 
officers; but in some others these owed their lives to the good-will 
of their men, being warned to make their escape. In July the 
great station of Cawnpore was obliged to surrender to Nana Sahib, 
a native, who had a personal grievance, when the whole of the 
Europeans—men, women, and children—were pitilessly massacred. 
Lucknow, the capital of Oude. however, held out until relieved 
by Sir Colin Campbell, a Peninsular veteran, who had been de¬ 
spatched from England as soon as the news of the mutiny arrived, 
in November. Under his able management the mutineers and 
their sympathizers among the native princes were put down; but 
this was not effected without a two years’ struggle. The immi¬ 
nence of the danger had shown that the India Company, as re¬ 
strained by its charter of 1833, was unequal to the task of 
governing so large a country; accordingly all its possessions were 


603 


Chapter VII.] THE HOUSE OF BRUNSWICK. 

War with China. Threats of the French. Jews admitted to Parliament. 

transferred to the crown, and the queen was formally proclaimed 
sovereign of India on the 2d of August, 1858, the Govemor-Gen- 
enal (Lord Canning) taking henceforth the title of Viceroy. Then 
Queen Victoria became Empress of India—the supreme ruler over 
200,000,000 subjects there. 

§ 34. During all this period the war with China had gone on, 
the French also bearing a part in it. Canton was taken, the forts 
at the mouth of the Peiho stormed, and in October, 1860, Pekin, 
the capital, was reached, and the emperor’s summer palace plun¬ 
dered. The Chinese government then agreed to a peace, which 
conceded many commercial advantages to the English. By the 
enterprise of Lord Elgin, who, as plenipotentiary to China, exer¬ 
cised a general supervision of the British trade to the remote East, 
communications were, shortly before this, opened with Japan, and 
an important commerce has been the result; but the attempt to 
establish friendly relations with Abyssinia, by means of some 
German missionaries, was not so successful. 

§ 35. Early in the year 1858 an Italian named Orsini, and other 
conspirators, attempted to assassinate the Emperor Napoleon the 
Third, and as the plot was believed to have been devised by Ita¬ 
lian refugees in England, some French military men, supposed to 
be instigated by the emperor, uttered loud threats of invasion. 
These were answered by the immediate formation of volunteer 
corps, which in 1859 numbered 150,000 men, and at the beginning 
of 1870 reached 190,000. Lord Palmerston tried to procure an 
alteration in the law regarding such conspiracies, but this could 
not be listened to in the face of threats, and he was obliged to re¬ 
tire from office. Lord Derby then became premier, and held the 
post from February, 1858, to June, 1859; but nothing of impor 
tance occurred, excepting the passage of a law for the admission 
of Jews to seats in parliament. A new parliament, in 1859, re¬ 
stored Lord Palmerston to power, and he continued premier until 
his death, in October, 1865. 

§ 36. During this, Palmerston’s last administration, society was 
in a most uneasy state in England and on the Continent, and many 
political and social changes occurred. But England interfered 
less in the affairs of other nations than ever before. Palmerston’s 
policy w T as one of non-interference—a policy conspicuously in con¬ 
trast with that of his administration as Foreign Secretary from 
1830 to 1841, and from 1846 to 1851, when lie was praised by 


604 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 


[Book X. 

Preparations for War. Civil War in America. Tripartite Alliance. 

some and blamed by others because, in effect, he undertook the 
government of the world. The continental commotions and the 
events of the civil war in America caused him to make all neces¬ 
sary preparations against attack. The army was increased, and 
the sum of £11,000,000, or $55,000,000, was voted for fortifications, 
and an almost equally large sum was expended in building enor¬ 
mous iron-clad ships and constructing equally enormous guns. 

§ 37. The unfriendly attitude assumed by Lord Palmerston and 
his cabinet toward the government of the United States, when the 
great civil war broke out in the spring of 18(51. was a grave mis¬ 
take. The impression had gone abroad the previous winter that 
the Union would certainly be destroyed by the secession of States, 
and the Republic be broken into fragments. Lured by the offer 
of free-trade, by the Southern Confederacy that was formed in 
February, the British Cabinet not only persuaded the Queen to 
acknowledge those Confederates, by proclamation [May 13, 1861], 
to be legally belligerents and possessed of belligerent rights, but 
entered into a secret agreement with the Emperor of 
a § 17, p ' 595 ‘ the French, a to act in concert in giving encourage¬ 
ment to the insurgents in arms. That cabinet went so far as to give 
official notice to other governments of that evident understanding 
between those two leading powers, thereby endeavoring to array 
all Europe against our Republic. Evidently believing that the 
United States were then almost helpless through the distractions 
of civil war, England and Spain, deceived by the false pretences 
of the Emperor of the French, entered into an alliance with France 
against the comparatively feeble Republic of Mexico, on our south¬ 
ern border, for the purpose, it was believed, to give moral and ma¬ 
terial aid to the insurgents when it should seem to be expedient. 
England and Spain soon discovered the perfidy of Napoleon and 
the iniquity of his schemes, and withdrew; but the Emperor of the 
French proceeded to overthrow the Mexican Republic, and to es¬ 
tablish a monarchy there. It was short-lived. 

§ 38. For a long time the British Government, British orators, 
statesmen, and publicists, and the British press in the interest of the 
government, indulged in the most unfriendly language and acts 
toward the government of the United States and its adherents. 
British ships continually ran the blockade of Southern ports with 
supplies for the insurgents. A member of the British Parliament 
built war-ships for tiie Confederates, with which to assail Ameri- 


Chapter VIT.] THE HOUSE OF BRUNSWICK. fi05 

Belligerent England. American Help for English Sufferers. 

can commerce, and they were equipped and manned by British 
subjects, and welcomed, with their plunder, in British colonial 
ports. And when the commander of a United States ship-of-war 
boarded a British packet-ship [November 8, 1861], and took there¬ 
from two ambassadors of the Confederates, the British Govern¬ 
ment, without making a demand for redress, or waiting to 
hear whether the Government of the United States approved the 
act, made extensive preparations for war, and ordered troops to 
Canada for the purpose. 1 Meanwhile the Government of the 
United States had disavowed .the act [November 30], and ordered 
the restoration of the prisoners to a British vessel. 

§ 89. The friendly attitude of the British ruling class toward the 
Confederates deluded the latter with the belief that the British 
government would acknowledge their independence and national¬ 
ity and give them material aid. This delusion caused the pro¬ 
longation of the war at least two years. Immense sums of money 
had been lent to the Confederates by individuals of an association 
composed of members of the British aristocracy and merchants, 
for the avowed purpose of aiding the Confederates to overthrow the 
Republic. These naturally desired their success, while the ship¬ 
builders and blockade-runners, and the ship-owners, profiting by 
the destruction of American commerce by the sea-rovers that the 
British government allowed to go out of port in spite of the re- 
monstances of the American ambassador, were quite willing that 
the war should go on. 

§ 40. While the ruling and mercantile classes of England were 
friendly to the Confederates, the great mass of the people prayed 
for peace and the triumph of our Government. The cotton famine 
caused by the war produced wide-spread distress in the manu¬ 
facturing districts of England, where the mill-wheels ceased revolv¬ 
ing. And here it seems proper to mention the fact, that when the 
war was at its height, and British vessels sailing under Confeder¬ 
ate flags were destroying American shipping and ruining Ameri¬ 
can commerce, the merchants and others of the city of New York 
sent a large ship [a.d. 1862] laden with provisions for the starving 
working-people of Lancashire and other districts in England, of 
the value of $100,000. And our government was compelled, by 

1 The St. Lawrence river was frozen at the time, and the troops could not reach 
Canada by water. Our Secretary of State, with grim humor, offered to grant them 
permission to cross our territory by railway from Portland, iii the State of Maine. 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 


606 


[Book X. 


An expensive Blunder. Reform Act. The Fenians. 

considerations of "humanity, to send a war-ship to protect that vessel 
of mercy from the touch of Anglo-Confederate cruisers then rov¬ 
ing the sea and making the Atlantic luminous with burning Ame¬ 
rican ships. 

§ 41. The unfriendly conduct of the British governing class was 
a woful blunder. It alienated the hearts of friends. The im¬ 
mense sums loaned to the Confederates were lost. The captures 
of blockade-runners were so numerous that the losses of the busi¬ 
ness far exceeded the profits, and the government was held respon¬ 
sible for the losses sustained by Americans from the depredations 
of the Anglo-Confederate cruisers. That blunder cost the British 
nation at least $100,000,000. 

§ 42. Earl Russell (the Lord John Russell of former 
a § 4, p. 584. ^ meg ) a now ]j ecame premier, and followed the non¬ 
intervention policy, so that a brief but fierce war between Prus¬ 
sia and Austria [a.d. 1866] passed away without England being 
mixed up in it, even although the kingdom of Han- 
b § 41, p. 5 . j ~. oyer b ] iac f formerly been the cause of so many 

contests, was seized by the victorious Prussians, who became the 
leading people in Germany. Earl Russell, instead of mixing in 
the quarrel, turned his attention to the Reform Act 
<= § 4, p. 584. ^ f 832 . c It had for many years, and by very differ¬ 
ent parties, been denounced as unfair and insufficient. Lord Pal¬ 
merston had tried to stifle action on the subject, and Russell had 
incurred much unpopularity by declaring that he considered it a 
final measure. In 1854 he brought in a bill for its amendment, 
but this was dropped in consequence of the war in south-eastern 
Europe. The subject was revived by the Derby administration in 
1859, and in 1860 by Earl Russell, but nothing was done. It was 
now again brought forward, but its provisions were not acceptable 
to the new parliament, and the ministry had to resign [June, 1866], 
when the Earl of Derby came into office for the third time, with 
Benjamin Disraeli as the leader of the House of Commons. 

§ 43. An organization composed of natives of Ireland, and 
known as the Fenian Brotherhood, now began to give the British 
government much trouble. The avowed object of the leaders was, 
and is, to effect the independence of Ireland. The Brotherhood 
began to assume shape in Ireland, the United States, and Canada, 
in 1859 and 1860. Being unrestrained by law in the United States, 
and that country having a very large native Irish population, the 


607 


Chapter VII.] THE HOUSE OF BRUNSWICK. 

The Fenians. 

association soon grew to ponderous proportions in that country. 
The first congress of the order was held in Chicago [November, 
1863], and the second in Cincinnati, in 1865, when the Brother¬ 
hood was reorganized. Its system for concert of action over large 
spaces was perfect, and in the year last named the membership of the 
Brotherhood was stated to be about 80,000. In Ireland the society 
is known as the “ Irish Revolutionary Brotherhood.” So bold 
w r ere some of the newspapers there in its interest, and so threaten¬ 
ing w r as its power in 1865, that troops were sent from England to 
Ireland, martial law was established in some counties, and the 
conductors of some newspapers were tried and sentenced to penal 
servitude. The chief, or “Head-Centre,” James Stephens, escaped 
from a Dublin prison and fled to America. 

§ 44. In the year 1866 the Fenians in the United States made 
bostile demonstrations toward Canada, and so committed acts of 
hostility to the governments of the United States and Great Britain. 
The Canadians were quickly aroused to meet the danger, and the 
United States government promptly took measures to suppress the 
movement, which became general along our northern frontier. 
Arms which the belligerents had gathered were seized. But a 
large number of the Brotherhood, armed, invaded Canada from 
Buffalo on the 1st of June, 1866. They were speedily re¬ 
pulsed, and the United States took ample measures to prevent any 
further violation of its laws. A Fenian congress was held at Troy 
in September; but there were no more hostile movements of im¬ 
portance in the United States during that and the following tvro 
years. But these formidable preparations here, and an attempt at 
revolution in Ireland, in March, 1867, kept the British government 
painfully alert. The attempt near Dublin and in the south was 
promptly put down, without much bloodshed; but many arrests 
were made. In December an attempt was made to liberate some 
of the prisoners in the Clerkenwell jail, in London, by blowing in 
the w all with gunpowder. It did not succeed; but a whole street 
of houses were shattered and many persons were killed. Another 
attempt to invade Canada, from Vermont, was made in the sum¬ 
mer of 1870; but it was such a signal failure that it brought the 
W'hole movement into disrepute. 

§ 45. Soon after the close of the civil w T ar in America [a.d. 1865], 
the United States government claimed from the British govern¬ 
ment indemnity for the citizens of this country for losses sustained 


608 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book X. 

Claims on England. War in Abyssinia. Reform Bills passed. 

by the depredations of the Anglo-Confederate cruisers already 
mentioned.® An American ambassador was sent al- 
* § 40, P . 605. mogt f()r tlie S p ec i a i purpose of urging and settling 
those claims, but nothing was effected. Some questions arose 
touching the correctness of the doctrine of the queen’s proclama¬ 
tion acknowledging the Confederates as belligerents, b 
’ ’ ' which complicated the matter, and the subject re¬ 

mained an open and irritating question. Early in 1871 a joint 
commission was appointed by the two governments, to negotiate 
for a settlement of those claims. The Commissioners met at Wash¬ 
ington, and a treaty was made which promised justice and peace. 
It was speedily ratified by both parties. 

§ 46. It has been mentioned that the attempts to open trade be¬ 
tween England and Abyssinia had not been satisfactory. An ac¬ 
tive and ambitious emperor of that country, named Theodore, 
claiming to be a descendant of King Solomon by the Queen of 
Sheba, became very angry in 1863, because an autograph letter 
which he sent to Queen Victoria, asking permission to place an 
ambassador at her court, was unanswered. Late in that year he 
imprisoned the British consul and some missionaries, chaining each 
to an Abyssinian soldier. Efforts were made from time to time 
to obtain their release, but failed. At the same time a civil war 
was raging in Abyssinia; yet this did not deter the emperor from 
defying the English when they threatened him with war. A mili¬ 
tary expedition was finally sent, under Sir Robert Napier. After a 
march of 400 miles from the sea to Magdala—the emperor’s strong¬ 
hold—that place was stormed and taken [April, 1868], the captives, 
several of them women and children, were liberated, and Theo¬ 
dore died by his own hand when he saw that all was lost. 

§ 47. In March, 1867, Mr. Disraeli, Chancellor of the Exchequer 
and leader of the House of Commons, introduced a very moderate 
Reform Bill for England and Wales, which, after several amend¬ 
ments, became a law by receiving the royal signature on the 15th 
of August. It was not to go into effect until 1869. It very 
widely extended the elective franchise, and so increased the power 
of the people. 1 Similar bills for Scotland and Ireland were after¬ 
wards passed [a.d. 1868], by which the former gained fifteen 
members of Parliament and the latter five. This measure was hailed 
with great joy throughout the United Kingdom, as a triumph for 
i The registration for the election of November, 1868, furnishes the data for the fol- 


Chapter VII.] THE HOUSE OF BRUNSWICK. 609 

Disestablishment of the Irish Church. The apprehended Effects. 

the champions of universal suffrage, toward which the liberal 
statesmanship of Great Britain is tending. 

§ 48. At the close of March, 1868, Mr. Gladstone, the eminent 
liberal leader in the House of Commons, introduced a resolution 
for the disendowment and disestablishment of the Irish Church. 
This just measure, relieving the great body of the Irish-people, who 
have no religious sympathy with that church, from the burden of 
its support, brought upon its author a storm of abuse from the 
champions of Church and State. The popular feeling was 'with 
Mr. Gladstone, and just a month after he introduced the resolu¬ 
tion, the House of Commons adopted it by a majority of 65. In 
July following parliament was prorogued, and in the autumn a 
new election took place, the great question in the canvass being 
that concerning the Irish Church. It was the most exciting can 
vass since the passage of the Reform Bill of 1832.® 

There was a majority of 112 out gf a membership of ^ 4 ’ P ‘ 584 ’ 
658 against the ministry. The latter resigned early in December 
[a.d. 1868], when the queen called Mr. Gladstone to the premier¬ 
ship, which position he still [a.d. 1871] holds. 

§ 49. The Irish Church question was the most important subject 
presented to the consideration of the new cabinet. That church 
had an endowment whose revenues amounted to about $3,000,000 
annually. Its membership numbered about 700,000. It had two 
archbishops, ten bishops, and about 1,700 clergy. The opposition 
to the measure was very strong, especially among churchmen, who 
regarded it as an initial step toward the disendowment and dis 
establishment of the English Church—the complete severance of 
the legal union of Church and State. But the measure, after a 
severe straggle, was carried in the House of Lords, and it became 
a law [August, 1869], to go into effect on thefirst of January, 1871. 


lowing table of elections in England and Wales, which shows the extension of the fran¬ 
chise there by the Reform Act of 1868:— 



Electors in 1866. 

Electors in 1868. 

Increase. 

"Boroughs. 

514,026 

542,683 

1,220,715 

791,916 

706.689 

249,283 

Counties. 


Total. 

1,056,659 

2,012,631 

955,972 



The registered voters were not quite one-tenth of the population, while in the United 
States they range from one-fifth to two-ninths of the population. 

26 * 













6.10 HISTORY OF EXGLAND. [Book X. 

War between France and Germans'. Temporal Power of the Pope ended. War Clouds 

§ 50. During the last half of the year 1870 all Europe was vio¬ 
lently agitated by a terrible war that raged in France, between that 
country and United Germany; but England, with unaccustomed 
wisdom, refrained from interference, excepting in the way of fee¬ 
ble moral influence. Thereby lives and treasure were spared to Great 
Britain. The war was one of the greatest crimes on 
a ^ 37, p ‘ 55 ’ record. The usurper on the French throne ft had been 
for years keeping that country in an attitude so threatening as an 
increasing military power, that other countries (especially Prussia, 
of which he was intensely jealous) were compelled to keep up large 
standing armies at an enormous expense, as a householder would 
furnish bolts against a burglar. At length, in fear of his own dis¬ 
contented people and the army he had been strengthening, he made 
war upon Prussia before declaring it, by pushing an armed force 
across the frontier. It was an act of aggression without the shadow 
of an excuse. The Emperor of. the French supposed the other Ger¬ 
man powers, jealous of Prussia, would be his allies, and he regard¬ 
ed the capture of the Prussian capital, in the course of a very 
short campaign, as a certainty. His mistake was scon apparent. 
All Germany united against him. The French armies were driven 
back, defeated, and captured; the emperor made a prisoner ; and 
the empress (who had been appointed Regent of France) and her 
son, the hen apparent, became exiles. The Germans overran France, 
and on the first of March, 1871, the German army, with the Prus¬ 
sian king, who had been proclaimed Emperor of united Germany, 
entered Paris in triumph, after allowing the French people to form 
a government, which they did, with the venerable M. Thiers as 
President of a provisional republic. Soon afterward there was an 
insurrection in Paris, which cost 60,000 lives and a vast amount of 
property destroyed by fire. 

§ 51. During the same period the temporal power of the Pope 
of Rome, after an existence of 1,100 years , was, by the overwhelm¬ 
ing voice of the people of the “ States of the Church,” in Italy, 
ended. It was a bloodless revolution. Italy (like Germany) be¬ 
came again united, under King Victor Emmanuel, and Rome was 
made its capital. In this movement, also, England refrained from 
meddling. Her political sky was serene during 1870, excepting 
some threatening clouds in the form of a sharp and almost hostile 
diplomatic correspondence between the cabinets of London and 
St, Petersburg. It was in relation to a treaty made after the Cri- 



611 


Chapter VIII.] THE HOUSE OF BRUNSWICK. 

Characteristics of England. Area of Great Britain and Ireland. 

mean war, a intended to restrain Russia from aggressive move- 
. c ments toward the British dominions in India. Rus- 

a § 5, p. 4oy. . 

sia claimed that the treaty was made by her under 
compulsion, and that she had a right to withdraw from it. And 
so the matter rested when this paragraph was written, in July, 
1871. 


CHAPTER VIII. 

THE PRESENT CONDITION OF GREAT BRITAIN. 

§ 1. In all that constitutes a truly great people, England, in the 
broader meaning of that word, appears in the front rank of nations. 
In jurisprudence; in the exploits of war and the arts and pursuits 
of peace; in the diffusion of the effulgence of Christianity and com¬ 
merce, and consequently of civilization over vast regions of mental 
and spiritual twilight; in geographic and scientific discovery; in 
labors of philanthropy at home and abroad; in aesthetic culture; 
in the restraints of law, the perfection of the family, and the sal¬ 
utary influences of home life, England is unrivalled in its satisfac¬ 
tory ministrations to the loving student of mankind. 

§ 2. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland has an 
area of 120,870 English square miles, and a population of about 
31,000,000. Its colonial possessions stretch over nearly one-half 
of the North American continent, nearly the whole of India, large 
portions of the continent of Africa, the whole of the great insular 
continent of Australia, islands of Oceanica, and the East and West 
Indian and Mediterranean Seas, and the port of Aden, near the Red 
Sea, by which the time of passage to India has been shortened 
from six months to one. The assertion first made by the Span¬ 
iards concerning the empire of Great Britain, that upon it “ the 
sun never sets,” is true to-day. 

§ 3. The commerce of Great Britain, considering the area and 
population of the United Kingdom alone, is enormous, according 
to the average given in the latest official reports since 1868. The 
statistics of commerce, as well as of other things, in that period, 
are given here in round numbers:— 



612 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 

Commerce, and the Army and Navy. 


[Book X 


The value of the yearly imports into the United Kingdom was 
£295,000,000, or $1,475,000,000. That of the exports was £228,- 
000,000, or $1,140,000,000. Of the imports, $216,000,000 were 
from the United States, while from all her colonies the total amount 
was only $835,000. The exports to the United States were $120,- 
000,000, and to the British colonies $269,000. Tliree-sevenths of 
the imports consisted of raw cotton, grain, wool, tea, and raw silk. 
The customs revenue was collected almost entirely from duties on 
chickory, cocoa, chocolate, coffee, grain, dried fruits, spirituous 
liquors, sugar, molasses, tea, tobacco, snuff, and wine. Ajid nine- 
tenths of the whole revenue was collected from the five articles, 
spirituous liquors, wine, tobacco, sugar, and molasses. 

§ 4. The number, tonnage, and manning of British vessels were: 

20.500 sailing vessels of an aggregate tonnage of 4,746,000, and 
155,000 men; and of steam vessels, 1,728, with an aggregate 
tonnage of 826,500, and 44,000 men. The total commercial marine 
consisted of 22,228 vessels, of an aggregate of 5,572,000 tons bur¬ 
den, and 199,400 men. 

§ 5. The British navy consists of about 650 vessels of all kinds, 
of which nearly one-half are in reserve, and many of them entirely 
worthless. This fleet is manned by 34,000 sailors, with officers; 

6.500 boys, and 7,000 marines, making a total of 47,500. The 

iron-clad fleet consists of between 40 and 50 vessels, 

^ g 90 P 00 ^ ' 

whose aggregate cost is about £11,000,000, or $55,- 
000,000.* The annual expense of the navy is about $50,000,000 a 
year. 

§ 6. The total army force proper of Great Britain, in the regular 
service, is 128,000 men. Besides these there are about 64,000 
soldiers in service in India, making a total of 192,000. Besides 
these two standing armies, provision is made for four classes of 
reserves, namely, the disembodied militia, 129,000; the yeomanry 
cavalry, 15,000; volunteers, 200,000 (of whom 175,000 are con¬ 
sidered effective), and the army reserve, of unknown numbers, com¬ 
posed of enrolled pensioners and others. The total number of 
men enrolled for annsbearing, and fit for effective duty, is about 
320,000. Both arms of the united service have a great burden of 
superannuated and retired officers on their pay-rolls, which adds 
nothing to the efficiency of the service, but largely to the cost. 
The pay of officers is generally very large. The commander-in- 
chief of the army receives a salary of $30,000 a year, and, being 


Chapter VIII.] THE HOUSE OF BRUNSWICK. 

Manufactures, Minerals, and Revenue. 


613 


a duke (Duke of Cambridge), receives, besides, an annuity of 
$60,000. 

§ 7. The textile industry of Great Britain is of marvellous 
extent, and employs about 160,000 persons. These are engaged 
in the manufacture of wool, cotton, flax, and silk fabrics. The 
average annual import of raw cotton is about 1,000,000,000 
pounds, of which one-third is exported in the form of cotton cloth. 
The average import of wool is over 250,000,000 pounds, of which 
more than 100,000,000 are exported in the form of woollen cloth. 
The average import of flax is valued at about $20,000,000, and the 
amount of raw silk, brought chiefly from Japan, China, and India, 
is about 7,000,000 pounds. There are in the United Kingdom, en¬ 
gaged in textile industries, 6,420 factories, with about 42,000,000 
spindles and 50,000 power-looms. 

§ 8. The total production of minerals from the earth, in a year, 
is valued at nearly $218,000,000, of which coal is the most im¬ 
portant in quantity and value. In one year 104,000,000 tons were 
raised, valued at $130,000,000. Next was pig-iron, of which 
5,000,000 tons were smelted, valued at $62,000,000. Nearly 
10,000 tons of copper were produced, valued at almost $4,000,000; 
and about 158,000 tons of copper ore were raised, valued at over $3,- 
000,000. Of lead, 72,000 tons were produced, valued at nearly 
$7,000,000 ; and 95,000 tons of lead ore were raised, valued at 
nearly $6,000,000. Of tin ore, 14,000 tons were raised, valued at 
about $4,000,000, and more than 10,000 tons of metallic tin were 
produced, valued at $4,500,000. The silver mines yielded over 
800,000 ounces, valued at more than $1,000,000. A little more 
than 1,500,000 tons of salt were produced, valued at almost $6,000,- 
000 ; and of clay, fine and fire, over 1,000,000 tons were brought 
into use, and valued at full $1,500,000. 

§ 9. The annual revenue of Great Britain is about $360,000,000, 
and expenditures, $340,000,000; of which $100,000,000 come 
from excise duties; $47,000,000, from stamps; from assessed taxes, 
$18,000,000; from income tax, $45,000,000, and the remainder 
from duties on imports. The amount annually paid to the royal 
family, for the queen’s personal income, expenses of her royal 
household, and annuities and pensions for her children, is $2,500,- 
00CT. The queen also receives from her private revenue as Duchess 
of Lancaster, about $145,000 a year; and the Prince of Wales, 
as Duke of Cornwall, receives about $276,000 a year. The 


614 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book X. 

Travel. Income. Pauperism. 

interest and the cost of the management of the national debt 
ll 461 consumes about two-fifths of the gross ihcome of 
the kingdom. The average share in that debt* of 
each individual of the population is about $128, and in the annual 
interest about $4.40. 

§ 10. The facilities for travel in Great Britain have been vastly 
v increased within the period of thirty years. Fine roads have 
been made in every direction, and stage-coaches and private car¬ 
riages, comfortable and elegant, abound. The first railway in 
England for carrying passengers was opened in 1825. It was 
worked with horse pow r er. The first railway upon which locomo¬ 
tives were used was in France, the next year; and in 1828, car¬ 
riages ran swiftly upon the Manchester and Liverpool Railway, by 
the salne power. There are now [a.d. 1871] seventy railways in 
the United Kingdom, having an aggregate length of 14,000 miles. 
Upon the construction and finishing of these about $1,400,000,000 
have been spent. 

§ 11. It is estimated that three per cent., or about 1,000,000, of 
the population of the United Kingdom belong to the landholder 
or aristocratic class, including the families of 350,000 landhold¬ 
ers ; about 20 per cent., or 6,000,000, to the middle class, traders, 
and brain-workers, and 77 per cent., or 23,000,000, to the “lower 
class,” or manual laborers. The total annual income of the popu¬ 
lation is estimated at $3,000,000,000. Of this amount the mid¬ 
dle and “ upper classes ”—7,000,000 of the population—receive 
$1,750,000,000, and the 23,000,000 of the laboring class receive 
$1,250,000,000. The former class receive a sum equal to $250 a 
head, and the latter class $54.35 a head. The incomes of the 
manual labor class, with very few exceptions, are exempted from 
taxation, as no income less than $500 is taxed. 

§ 12. Pauperism is frightfully prevalent in Great Britain, and 
has largely increased within the last five years. The fluctuations 
in the prices of raw manufacturing materials have made mill- 
owners cautious, and the number of skilled laborers out of employ¬ 
ment at the beginning of the year 1870 w T as very large. At that 
time one-tenth of the entire population of the kingdom were in the 
receipt of temporary or permanent relief. In England and Wales 
alone the number of persons who received relief w r as over 2,000,- 
000. In Scotland the number was 222,000, or one in every four¬ 
teen of the population. In Ireland the ratio was one in eight. 


615 


CnAPTER Yin.] THE HOUSE OF BRUNSWICK. 

Crime. Ignorance. Popular Education. 

This depressed state of labor caused a great increase of emigration. 
Many fled from almost actual starvation. The number of persons 
who left the United Kingdom for other countries, in 18G9, was 
about 220,000. At a meeting held in London, at near the close of 
that year, to consider the subject of emigration, the Lord Mayor 
stated that there were between 70,000 and 80,000 skilled artisans 
then in Great Britain who could not find employment, and that 
they either must be removed from the country or starve! There 
must be a pressing need for radical social reforms in a country 
where so vast a number of the most productive citizens are com¬ 
pelled to emigrate'or famish—a number representing nearly half 
a million dependent soul^. In Scotland, at the same time, the 
number of vagrants had increased 18,000 in the course of two 
years. 

§ 13. Crime, often the child of cruel poverty, seems to be on the 
increase in England. The number of persons arrested and tried 
for various offences in England and Wales alone, in 1869, was 
more than 500,000, of whom about 350,000 were convicted and 
punished. In Scotland and Ireland the number was equally large 
in proportion to the population. The police force of the kingdom 
numbered about 41,000, and were maintained at an annual expense 
of $14,000,000. There were between 60 and 70 reformatory 
schools for juvenile criminals, in which there were nearly 7,000 of 
both sexes, kept at an annual expense of over $600,000. 

§ 14. While the statistics of popular education in Great 
Britain do not make a very pleasant impression, there are signs and 
’ evidences of speedy and rapid improvement. Thirty years ago 
33 per cent, of the men and 48 per cent, of the women who were 
married could not write their names. Now the percentage of each 
sex who cannot write their names is only a little over 20. 

§ 15. The entire appropriation for the promotion of popular 
education, made in 1869 by parliament for the United Kingdom, 
was a little more than $6,000,000, or about 20 cents for each per¬ 
son in the kingdom. There were then about 16,000 elementary 
schools subject to public aid; but in all of these the standard of at¬ 
tainment was quite low. Teachers’ wages had been much ad¬ 
vanced, and a much better class of instructors were promised. 
The average price for a masculine teacher of highest grade was 
$457 a year, and for a feminine teacher of the same grade, $281 a 
year. The cost of maintaining these 16,000 elementary schools 


616 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 


Public and Private Schools. 


[Book X. 

The Anglican Church. 


was nearly $8,000,000, which sum was provided partly by the gov¬ 
ernment, the income from endowments, scholars’ fees, and the 
funds of the national school societies. The government appro¬ 
priated about $2,400,000 of the amount, a sum but a little more 
than one-half the amount spent by the State of New York (with 
less than one-seventh of the population of the United Kingdom) 
for the same purpose at the same time. 

§ 16. Besides these annual-grant schools, there were many of a 
lower grade, taught by inferior teachers, which received no gov¬ 
ernment aid, and in which were about 1,000,000 pupils. At the 
same time, about 300,000 scholars were under tuition in private 
schools of a much higher grade. There were, also, between 40 
and 50 colleges, or normal schools, for the professional instruction 
of teachers, in which there were accommodations for 21,000 pu¬ 
pils, and the attendance was about 16,000. There are also nu¬ 
merous parochial schools, sustained by the Established Church and 
the different Dissenting denominations; endowed schools, great 
and small; ragged and evening schools, and the special schools 
of institutions or guilds. For higher education, in England, are 
the three great universities of Oxford, Cambridge, and London, 
and smaller colleges established by religious denominations; the 
universities of Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen, and St. Andrew’s, 
'in Scotland; and Trinity College and the University of Dublin, 
Queen’s College, at Belfast, and several smaller colleges belonging 
to religious societies, in Ireland. 

§ 17. But all of these facilities for education (happily increasing) 
are totally inadequate to supply the needs of the people. Ig-’ 
norance is frightfully prevalent. The poorer classes, exposed to 
the temptations to which education is often a foil, have not the 
means for general enlightenment, and the significant fact remains 
that Great Britain pays annually more than twice as much money 
for the maintenance of a police force as for popular education. 

__4-lb. The Anglican Church, established by Henry the Eigh th,* is 

*> § 44 p 326 yet the State clmrch in England and Wales, to which 
all the others are tributary. The sovereign is the 
titular head. It is managed by two archbishops (of Canterbury 
and York) and twenty-eight bishops. There are about 12,000 
parishes and 200 extra-parochial places, each of which has its par¬ 
son, or parish “ priest,” a rector, or vicar. These are supported by 
tithes, rates, or parish dues, and in part by endowments. The 


617 


Chapter YIII.] THE HOUSE OF BRUNSWICK. 

Churches of Scotland and Ireland. Energy of the Nation. 

whole annual income of the Established Church is about $25,000,- 
000. The church population is estimated at 12,500,000, for whom 
there are 5,500,000 sittings provided. There are, besides the houses 
of worship belonging to the Established Church, nearly 5,000 
other buildings used for the same purpose, by Roman Catholics 
and the various Dissenting denominations. 1 The incomes of the 
two archbishops are large—that of Canterbury $75,000, and of 
Fork $50,000, a year. Some of the bishops have large salaries, 
but the great body of the inferior clergy are not well paid. 
Twenty-four of the bishops have seats in the House of Lords. 

§ 19. The Established Church in Scotland is Presbyterian in its 
form of government. There are no bishops or clergy of supreme 
authority over other clergy. The ruling body is a General 
Assembly of 886 members. It is a high ecclesiastical court. The 
clergy are supported by tithes and State stipends. But the dis¬ 
senters from this church comprise about two-thirds of the popula¬ 
tion. Of these the most important belong to the Free Church of 
Scotland, which seceded from the Established Church in 1848, 
and the United Presbyterian Church, formed by a coalition of 
fragments, some of which broke off so early as 1741. There are 
nearly 25,000 Episcopalians in Scotland, and some of the differ¬ 
ent Dissenting denominations. The Established Church has about 
1,250 places for public worship, 1,300 ministers, and 1,800 Sunday- 
schools, with 140,000 scholars. The Free Church is supported by 
voluntary contributions. 

§ 20. There is now, as we have seen, no Established Church in 
Ireland.® The great majority of the population are 
Roman Catholics. They claim 4,500,000 of the a§49 ’ p,6 ° 9 - 
6,000,000 inhabitants. The remaining million and a half are di¬ 
vided among churchmen (700,000) and the various dissenters. 

§ 21. The history of England, whose outlines we have traced in 
this volume, is a marvellous revelation of what human energy may 
accomplish. The people of that little country, occupying part of 
an island, have been for almost a thousand years eminently con¬ 
spicuous for their force. During all that time no successful foreign 
invader has trodden the soil, while aggressive expedition after ex¬ 
pedition have sailed from its coasts and made important con- 

1 Of these almost one-third belonged to the Independents, or Congregationalists, who 
arose in England, with Thomas Brown as a leader, in the sixteenth century, and were 
sometimes called “Brownists.” 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 


G18 


[Book X. 


Strength of the Nation. Natural Features and Remarkable Events. 

quests. From its inherent energies there has been a most vigorous 
outgrowth of civilization, almost without interruption, slower at 
times than in other lands, but of greater vitality, and which is 
still developing new strength for the nation. It has been growing 
stronger, richer, and wiser every day. He who argues from the 
fact that England is less aggressive-and warlike than formerly, 
and that pauperism and crime are increasing within the borders of 
the United Kingdom, that it has passed the meridian of its glory, 
has, undoubtedly, erroneous conceptions of its vigor. It is a giant 
in his prime, somewhat, diseased; but it has a constitution strong 
enough to endure the application of any remedies that shall 
promise restoration of health. The medicine most needed is the 
elevation of the people—morally, socially, and politically—through 
the healthful ministrations of education, and the practical diffusion 
throughout the whole social system of the principles of Liberty, 
Equality, and Fraternity. 

§ 22. These words have often been misused; nevertheless they 
are the expression of that which, combined with industry, econo¬ 
my, and intelligence, form the solid foundations of a flourishing 
State. 


CHAPTER IX. 

Natural Features and Remarkable Events . 1 

§ 1. The following geographical, topographical, and historical 
notes may be useful to the reader after a perusal of the preceding 
narrative of the most important events in British history: 

§ 2. The extreme north of Scotland 9 is marked by two rocky 
promonotories, called Cape Wrath, to the west, and Duncansbay 
Head' to the east. Both of them are famous in the 

a § O, p. 41. 

long contest of the Norsemen a (or Danes, as they are 
less correctly termed) with the Scots. On the eastern shore we 

1 A consultation of the maps in this volume, while reading this chapter, will make 
it more instructive to the student. 

2 Known by the Romans as Caledonia. It was invaded by the Scots, a Celtic race, 
from Ireland [a.d. 503]. They established a kingdom there, and in the reign of Ken¬ 
neth McAlpin, in the ninth century, they became the dominant race, and called the 
country Scotland. 



Chapter IX.] THE HOUSE OF BRUNSWICK. 

Natural Features and Remarkable Events. 


619 


» § 18, p. 85. 


pass the Ord of Caithness, and the Dornoch and Moray Filths, the 
hitter of which is the outlet of the chain of lakes that stretch from 
the German to the Atlantic Ocean, and are made navigable by the 
Caledonian Canal. On their banks are Fort George, Fort Augus¬ 
tus, and Fort William, built to restrain the High- 

H § 23, p. 24. 

landers. ft 

§ 3. At the east end of the lakes is Inverness, which is considered 
a provincial capital, and the moor of Culloden, on which the par¬ 
tisans of the Stuarts were defeated by the Duke of Cumberland in 

1746. b Beyond Fort George is Naim: then the bluff 

. b § 24, p. 525. 

rock called Burgh-Head, near which is the decayed 

city of Elgin ; then the river Spey; next Banff Bay, beyond which 

is Kinnaird’s Head, the north-eastern point of Scotland. 

§ 4. Turning southward, we have in succession Aberdeen, famous 
for its colleges, as also for its trade; Montrose, Dundee, and the 
Frith of Tay; the city of St. Andrews, and the Frith of Forth, on 
the shores of which are found, beside the capital city of Edin¬ 
burgh (founded by the Saxon King, Edwin c —Edwinsburgh), many 
places renowned in Scottish history. Crossing the 
Forth we have North ^Berwick, Dunbar, St. Abb’s 
Head, Eyemouth, and thus reach the Tweed, the boundary of 
Scotland on that side. 

§ 5. The western coast, though picturesque in the extreme, has 
few objects of general historic interest, probably from the affaire 
of the country having been but imperfectly recorded. 

Off its shores lie the isles called the Hebrides, 11 which 
were long in the possession of the Norsemen. The most interesting 
are Iona and Staffa—the one famous for its early religious founda¬ 
tions, and as the burial-place of forty-eight kings, and the other 
for its romantic caves, which preserve the names of traditionary 
earlv heroes. These islands were once ruled by chiefs 

J ® | o, p. 2b5. 

called the Lords of the Isles, e who were often danger¬ 
ous rivals to the kings of Scotland; many of them allied them¬ 
selves with the English kings, and the title is now borne by the 
Prince of Wales. 

§ 6. Beyond the Hebrides stretches the peninsula of Cantyre, 
which almost approaches Ireland, and beyond this the once wild 
district of Galloway extends to the Solway Frith, on the opposite 
shore of which is seen the English county of Cumberland. In the 
interior of Scotland are found the loftiest mountains of Great 


i § 9, p. 2. 


620 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 

Natural Features and Remarkable Events. 


[Book X. 


Britain. There are the Grampians, where the Caledonians sheltered 
themselves from the power of Rome. a From these 
b f ^ P jjj mountains flow, on the east side, the Dee, the Tay, and 
’ 1 the Forth, on which are found Aberdeen, Perth, and 
Stirling; 5 Edinburgh, the capital, is built near the mouth of the 
latter river. 

§ 7. The Cheviot or Teviot hills divide England and Scotland. 
They have been the scene of innumerable contests between the two 
nations, and one of them in particular is the subject of the ancient 
ballad of Chevy Chase. 0 Among them rise the 
Clyde, on which stand Glasgow, Dunbarton, and 
Greenock; the Tweed, on which, or its tributaries, are Jedburgh, 
Melrose, Kelso, Berwick/ and other places famed in 
border history; also the Liddel, Esk, Annan, and 


« § 19, p. 224. 


d § J2, P. 200. 
• § 32, p. 195. 


Nith, which unite to form the Frith of Solway, near 
which is Carlisle.® 

§ 8. Entering England, it will be seen that the whole western 
side of the country, including Wales, is mountainous, or at least 
hilly, and that the eastern portion is a plain, with only occasional 
high ground. The southern part, liowefer, between the English 
Channel and the Thames and Severn, lias ranges of hills, which at 
length rise almost to mountains; in Wiltshire a branch shoots off, 
traverses Berkshire and Buckinghamshire, under the name of the 
Cliiltem hills, and, getting gradually lower, extends into Suffolk. 

§ 9. The east coast of England, from Berwick as far as the 
Humber, is generally lofty, and it has many places of historical 
interest. The field of Flodden f (and probably that 
of Brunanburg)s lies not far distant from Berwick. 
Bamborough Castle owes its origin to Ida, the foun¬ 
der of the kingdom of Northumbria. 11 Near it is 
Holy Island, which was one of the earliest places rav¬ 
aged by the Norsemen, 1 while Scarborough was burnt by them in 
almost their last attack on England. Whitby had a famous mon¬ 
astery ; and Flamborough Head and Spurn Point have witnessed 
many hostile landings. 

§ 10. On the western side of the same district are Cumberland, 
a mountainous region, where many of the Britons found shelter 
from the Saxons, with the Isle of Man,i long a Norse 
kingdom, off its coasts. Then succeeds the low sandy 
shore of Lancashire, beyond which lies a small part of Cheshire, 


r § 6, p. 310. 
* § 5, p. 53. 
h § 4, p. 31. 

1 § 7, p. 41. 


j § 9, p. 2. 


621 


Chapter IX.] THE HOUSE OF BRUNSWICK. 

Natural Features and Remarkable Events. 

between the rivers Mersey and Dee. The western bank of the Dee 
is North Wales. 

§ 11. Of the rivers that rise on the west side of the mountains 
in the north of England, we may notice the Eden, on which stands 
Carlisle; the Lune, on which is Lancaster; and the Mersey, on 
which (and its tributary, the Irwell) the great modern towns of 
Manchester and Liverpool are placed. 

§ 12. On the east side of the same chain are the Tyne, the Wear, 
and the Tees, on which stand Hexham (once a bishop’s see, and 
also the scene of a great battle), a Newcastle, Durham, a ^ 4 p gg6 
Barnard Castle, and Stockton; and as we get farther 
south, in Yorkshire, the Swale and the Ure, with Richmond and 
Ripon on their banks; the Ouse, the Wharfe, the Aire, and the 
Calder, on which stands York, famous even in the b ^ ^ p ^ 
time of the Romans; b Tadcaster, near which the p 
Lancastrians were defeated at Towton; c Leeds, a 
place of vast trade, and Pontefract and Wakefield, d ^ p ' 26 J ' 
celebrated for battles and sieges. 

§ 13. Wj 1 1 coast between the Dee and 

the Bristol Channel, abounds in historical monuments. The Isle 
of Anglesey was the last retreat of the Druids. e Bard- e g 19 p 5 
sev Island was formerly esteemed holy, so that many 
Welsh princes and bishops desired to be buried there, as St. David 
and Merlin are said to have been. St. David is the representative 
of the early British church. 

§ 14. Pembroke Castle and its district were once a county pala¬ 
tine, endowed with almost kingly privileges, and received so many 
English and Flemish settlers f that it is still known m 

as Little England beyond Wales. Pembroke and the 
neighboring county of Glamorgan abound in castles built by the 
Norman invaders of Wales and on the eastern side ^ p m 
of the county can be traced, for more than 120 miles, h ^ p 3g 
the remains of a vast fortification, called Offa’s 
Dvke, h by which an Anglo-Saxon monarch endeavored to pro¬ 
tect his dominions against the ravages of the Welsh. 

§ 15. The Welsh streams mostly flow into the sea, on its west or 
south coasts, after a short course. Such, however, is not the case 
with the Dee or the Severn. The Dee rises near the coast in the 
northern part of the country, but turns to the east and then to the 
north, and passes by Wrexham, Chester, and Flint, into the Irish 


622 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Book X. 

Natural Features and Remarkable Events. 

Sea. The Severn rises in the central part of Wales, runs north¬ 
eastward to Shrewsbury, and then turning south flows past Bridg¬ 
north, Worcester, Tewkesbury, Gloucester, and Berkeley (all 
noted towns in English history), into the Bristol Channel. Many 
streams run into it, of which may be mentioned the Teme, the 
Wye, and the Monnow. On their banks are Ludlow, Hereford, 
Ross, Monmouth, and numerous other places cele- 
a § 10, p. 109. |_ >rate( j - n t j ie history of the Welsh Marches,® or the 
border country, as the district of the Severn river was formerly 
called. 

§ 16. To the mountains of the north of England succeed the 
Peak of Derbyshire and the Moorlands of Staffordshire. Among 
these last rises the Trent, which passes by or near Stafford, Lich¬ 
field, Derby, Newark, and Gainsborough, and being joined by the 
Don and other streams forms the Humber, near the mouth of which 
is Hull, in Yorkshire, on the north, and Grimsby, in Lincolnshire, 
on the south. 

§ 17. From the Humber the east coast is generally low and 
fringed by sandbanks, as in Yarmouth Roads, presenting many 
difficulties to the navigator, but thus offering an invaluable school 
for the instruction of a maritime nation. St. Botolpli’s-town (now 
Boston), once a place of very great trade, may be noticed; the 
great estuary of the Wash; Yarmouth and Lowestoft, South wold 
bay, the scene of a sea-fight with the Dutch; b Dun- 
§ 13, p. 4-jo. once a great city, now half ingulfed by the sea; 

the rivers Orwell, Stour, Colne, Blackwater, and Crouch, and the 
mouth of the Thames, here twenty miles wide. The 
^ l 8 ’ p ‘ ’ Norsemen settled in great numbers in this district. 0 
§ 18. In the great central and eastern plain of England we find 
many rivers, on which important towns and cities are placed. The 
largest and every way the most important is the Thames, which 
rises in Gloucestershire, and flows into the sea between Essex and 
Kent, after a course of more than 200 miles. On or near its banks 
are, among other places of historical interest, Ciren- 
s ’ ' ' cester, d Oxford, Windsor, and London. Of celebrated 

places on or near other streams may be named Lincoln and 
Boston on the Witham; Leicester on the Soar; Coventry, Kenil¬ 
worth, Warwick, and Evesham, on the Avon; Northampton and 
Peterborough, on the Nen; Bedford, Ely, and Lynn, on the Ouse; 
Cambridge, on the Cam ; Norwich, on the Wensum ; Ipswich, on the 


623 


Chapter IX.] THE HOUSE OF BRUNSWICK. 

Natural Features and Remarkable Events. 

Orwell; Colchester, on the Colne; and Maldon, on the Blackwater, 
once the capital of a British king, and, when a Roman b p ^ 
colony, burnt by the troops of Boadicea. a 

§ 19. This plain and the Staffordshire moorlands have been the 
scene of many fierce battles. The Saxons and the Norsemen had 
contests in almost every part; but the latter were generally success¬ 
ful, and had in central England five strong fortresses, known as the 
Five Burghs (Leicester, Stamford, Derby, Nottingham, b ^ 4 p 51 
Lincoln). 15 

§ 20. Richard the Tliird was killed at Bosworth c in Leicester¬ 
shire. In the wars of the Roses d there were battles at 
Bloreheath, Northampton* St. Albans, and Barnet. ’ ' ‘ 

Lambert Simnel 6 was defeated at Stoke on Trent, in ^ g ^ 
Nottinghamshire, and Charles I. at Naseby/ in North- f ^ ^ p m 
amptonshire. And during the great Civil War, bat- ^ ^ 41 p 41g 
ties and sieges occurred at Edgehill,^ at Gains- h g p< 423 
borough, Newark , 11 and many other places. Crossing , § ^ p 13 
the Thames from Essex, we reach Kent, where Caesar , 1 j § 4 , p . as. 
and Hengist, and Horsa,i and St. Augustine landed ; k k § 15, p . 34. 
which contains the North and South Forelands, Dover 1 § 20, p. 161. 
Castle , 1 Sandwich, and Hythe, and Romney, all Cinque m § 10, P . 157. 
Ports , 111 and the modem camp at Shorncliff. 

§ 21. The south and west parts of England abound with cele¬ 
brated ranges of hills, which rise in the west into mountains, and 
give off very many streams, on which famous towns are placed. 
The North and South Downs traverse Kent, Surrey, and Sussex, 
having a hollow tract between them called the Weald, which was 
once the bed of an inlet of the sea. 

§ 22. To the Downs succeeds the forest district of Hampshire, on 
the coast, with high ground to the north and west, in Wiltshire n 
and Dorsetshire. As we get farther westward the n ^ p 3ig 
land rises more and more, and in Somersetshire, Devon¬ 
shire, and ComwaU, it attains in some places to nearly an equal 
height with the mountains of Cumberland and Wales, and at last 
ends in a mass of rocks well known as the Land s End. 

§ 23. Commencing with Kent, among the streams of the district 
we have the Medway, on which stand Tunbridge, Maidstone, 
Rochester, Chatham, aud, at its junction with the o § ^ p n 
Thames, Sheerness. On the Stour stands Canterbury. 0 
The river once flowed into the sea by two moutlis, the waters of 


624 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 

Natural Features and Remarkable Events. 


[Book X. 


which separated the Isle of Thanet a from the mainland, and 
were guarded by the Roman forts of Regulbium and 
Ritupte. Their ruins are now called Reculver and 
Richborough. 

§ 24. Caesar landed on Deal beach, b and the Saxons’ first posses¬ 
sion was the Isle of Thanet. The Norsemen quar¬ 
tered themselves in Shepey. c William the Norman 
marched through Kent, and burnt Dover; d and 
Louis, the son of a French king, besieged it in 
vain. e 

§ 25. Passing on to Sussex, we see Pevensey bay, where the 
Normans landed; f Battle, where they began the con¬ 
quest of England; e Pevensey, on the site of a famous 
British town; Anderida, destroyed by the Saxons; 
Rye and Winchelsea, members of the Cinque Ports, h 
Beacliy head, where the English and Dutch fleets 
were defeated by the French. 1 Lewes, on the Ouse, 
was the scene of a battle where Henry the Third was made 
prisoner; i Arundel Castle, on the Arun, has stood 
many sieges; and Chichester, on the Lavant, has its 
name from Cissa, the second of the South Saxon kings. k 
§ 26. In Hampshire, Porchester Castle was a Roman station; and 
Portsmouth, the great modem arsenal, is named from Porta, one 
of the early Saxon invaders. 1 The New Forest 111 is 
still a remarkable monument of the Norman rule. 
Winchester," on the Itchin, was once the capital of 
England; and Southampton, at the mouth of the same 
river, a celebrated seaport ages ago, was occasionally the resi¬ 
dence of Canute.* Off the coast lies the Isle of Wight .p 
I t contains Newport and Carisbrooki Castle, which 
are connected with the history of Charles the First, 
as is Hurst Castle, on the opposite Hampshire shore. 

§ 27. The bold cliff called Hengistbury Head, on the border of 
Dorsetshire, connects that comity with early Saxon history. It 
has also many Roman camps; the ruins of Corfe T and 
Wareham Castles, where many captives of high rank 
have been starved to death ; Sherborne, which was once a bishop’s 
see; Portland, the scene of a sea-fight with the Dutch; 


. § 4, p. 28. 


b § 7, p. 8. 
c § 9, p. 2. 
d § 25, p. 84. 

e § 20, p. 161. 


f § 10, p. 80. 
g § 12, p. 81. 

h § 10, p. 157. 
' § 4, p. 481. 


j § 19, p. 178. 
k § 1, P- 30. 


1 § 1, p. 31. 
m § 27, p. 102. 
" § 2, p. 27. 


0 § 1, p. 68. 

p § 9, p. 2. 

9 § 52, p. 424. 


1 § 9, p. 157. 


* § 16, p. 435. 


and Lyme, a seaport, where the Duke of Monmouth 


landed to raise a rebellion against James the Second. 8 


025 


Chapter IX.] THE HOUSE OF BRUNSWICK. 

Natural Features and Remarkable Events. 

§ 28. Inland from Dorsetshire and Hampshire lies Wiltshire, 
and beyond that Somersetshire, which reaches to the arm of the 
sea called the Bristol Channel. In Wiltshire is Salisbury Plain, 
with its wonderful circles of stone (Stonehenge), and barrows, or 
burial mounds of the early inhabitants. On the Avon is Salisbury, 
and on the Kennet, Marlborough, both famous in history. In 
Somersetshire are Bath and Bristol, both on the Avon, the former 
a Roman city; Wells, renowned for its beautiful cathedral; 
Bridgewater and Taunton, on the Tone and the Parrett, celebrated 
for the sieges that they have sustained; Glastonbury, a § ^ p 34 
one of the earliest seats of Christianity in Britain, a b § p . 2 s. 
and the sepulchre of King Arthur; b and Athelney, c g 2 , p . 46. 
the retreat of Alfred.® 

§ 29. Beyond Somerset and Dorset is the county of Devon. It is 
washed by the sea, both north and south, and possesses the noble 
harbor of Plymouth Sound, beside the anchorage of Torbay, 
where William the Prince of Orange landed/ On d§21p 478 
the north shore is Hartland Point, with Lundy Island e ^ ^ p 204> 
(once belonging to the Knights Templars) 8 in the 
distance. On the south shore is Dartmouth, an ancient seaport, 
with Totness, ten miles from the mouth of the Dart river, the scene 
of a very early battle with the Saxons. Exeter, on the Exe, is a Ro¬ 
man city, which stood a siege from the Normans in the year after the 
battle of Hastings/ The southern part of Devonshire f § ^ ^ gl> 
is fertile, but in the north are the wild and rugged 
tracts called Exmoor and Dartmoor, which abound in minerals, 
and also in cromlechs, barrows, and logan stones, the traces of the 
earliest inhabitants. 

§ 80. The river Tamar divides Devonshire from the still more 
rugged Cornwall. This district was long the stronghold of a 
number of the Britons, who maintained their independence amid 
its rocks and moors; they were called by the Saxons, the West 
Welsh, and till comparatively modern times they used a language 
that much resembled that of the Welsh. In Cornwall are found 
St. Michael’s Mount, one of the places where the ancient Britons 
traded with the Phoenicians; * Tintagell Castle, the g § ^ p g 
reputed birthplace of King Arthur; h St. German’s, ^ p ^ 
now a village, but once a bishop’s see; way-side 
crosses, and even a church, which are thought to have been erected 
1,400 years ago, and still earlier monuments resembling those of 
27 


C26 


HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 

Natural Features and Remarkable Events. 


[Book X. 


*§ 12, p.200. 

b § 9, p. 483. 
c § 6, p. 41. 
a § 21, p. 139. 


s § 4, p. 481. 


f§l, p. 428. 
e § 36, p. 549. 
h § 8, p. 483. 


Dartmoor. On the coast is the Lizard Point, which is the most 
southern land of Great Britain, and along the shores are Fowey, 
Falmouth, Penzance, St. Ives, and Padstow, all frequently men¬ 
tioned in English history. 

§ 31. The Irish and the French coasts must be briefly noticed. 
On the east coast of Ireland are Carrickfergus, where Edward 
Bruce landed to attempt the conquest of the coun¬ 
try ; a Drogheda, near which the battle of the Boyne 
was fought; b Dublin, the capital; Wicklow, a port 
of the Norsemen; c and Wexford, where the English 
conquest of Ireland was begun. d On the south coast 
are the famous harbors of Waterford, Cork, Kinsale, and Bantry 
Bay, near which last an indecisive battle took place with the 
French fleet in 1689. 6 On the west coast, up the river 
Shannon, is the city of Limerick, once possessed by 
the Norsemen; Galway, which was the last place in Ireland that 
held out against the Commonwealth; f and Killala, 
where a French force landed in 1798. s On the north 
coast is Lough Foyle, a large inlet of the sea, at the 
head of which stands Londonderry, famous for its 
successful defence against James the Second. h 

§ 32. The coasts of France are connected with English history 
from many naval battles having been fought on them, and many 
of their towns Having once been in English hands. On the Medi¬ 
terranean, or southern coast, we have the city of Toulon, captured by 
the English in 1793 ; Marseilles, whence Richard the 
i § 6, p. 146. First sailed for the Holy Land; 1 and Cannes, where 
j § 55, p. 657. Napoleon landed from Elba, j and re-established the 
k § ii, p . io9. Empire, which gave occasion for the battle of Water¬ 
loo. On the north coast are Calais k and Boulogne, 1 
both formerly English possessions, and which have in 
more modem times been repeatedly attacked by English fleets; the 
river Somme, up which is Abbeville, near which the battles of 
Crecy m and Agin'court n were fought; the Seine, which 
traverses Normandy, on which stand Havre de Grace, 
Harfleur, Honfleur, Rouen, Mantes, Paris, and Meaux, 
beside many other places mentioned in the wars between England 
o § 6, p. 219. and France. Westward of the Seine we find Bayeux, 

P § 4, p. 48i. Barfleur, Cherbourg, 0 and Cape La Hogue, p with the 
Channel Islands, the only remnants of the duchy of Normandy 


i § l, p. 7. 


» § 11, p. 109. 
n § 7, p. 247. 


627 


Chapter IX.] THE HOUSE OF BRUNSWICK. 

Natural Features and Remarkable Events. 

now possessed by the British monarch. Brittany stretches still 
farther west, having at its extremity Brest and the Isle of Ushant, 
and then, proceeding eastward, Quiberon, Belleisle, a g 48 p 373 
and Nantes. a Farther south are La Rochelle, the 
Isle of Oleron, and the river Gironde, up which is Bordeaux, one 
of the last of the English possessions in France. p 134 
It was the capital of the great duchy of Guienne, b o ^ 1 p 144 
which when held by Prince Richard (afterwards Rich¬ 
ard Cceur de Lion) c extended to the Pyrenees. 


THE END. 



. 











APPENDIX. 


I. ROYAL FAMILIES AND PRINCIPAL COTEMPORARY EUROPEAN SOVE¬ 
REIGNS FROM A.D. 10(36. 

William I.—The Conqueror. Natural son of Robert, Duke of Normandy. Born 1027. 
Married Matilda of Flanders, 1054. Began to reign in England, 10C6. Died 
September 9, 1087. Issue: four sons and five daughters. 

Cotemporary Sovereigns. — Scotland— Malcolm III. France —Philip I. Germany 
—Henry IV. Popes— Alexander II., Gregory VII., Victor III. 

William II.— Third son of William I. Born about 1060. Crowned September 26, 
1087. Killed August 2, 1100. Never married. 

Cotemporary Sovereigns. — Scotland —Malcolm III., Donald V II., Duncan II., 
Edgar. France —Philip I. Germany— Henry IV. Popes—Victor III., Ur¬ 
ban II., Pascal II. 

Henry I.— Youngest son of William I. Born 1068. Crowned August 5,1100. Married 
Maud of Scotland, 1100, and Adelais of Louvain, 1121. Died December 1, 
1135. Issue: one son and one daughter. 

Cotemporary Sovereigns. — Scotland —Edgar, Alexander I., David I. France 
Philip I., Louis VI. Germany —Henry IV. Popes —Pascal II., Gelasius II., 
Calixtus VI., Honorius II., Innocent II. 

I 

Stephen.- Grandson of William I. Born about 1096. Married Matilda of Boulogne 
about 1134. Crowned December 26, 1135. Died October 25,1154. Issue: 
three sons and two daughters. 

Cotemporary SovEREiGNS.-8'co«cmd-David I., Malcolm IV. Prance-Louis VI., 
Louis VII. Germany —Henry V., Lothaire II., Conrad III. Popes Celestine 
II., Lucius II., Eugenius III., Anastasius IV. 

Henry II. -Grandson of Henry I. Born March 25,1133. Married Eleanor of Gui- 
enne, 1150. Crowned December 19, 1154. Died July 6, 1189. Issue. five sons 
and three daughters. 

Cotemporary Sovereigns.— Scotland—Malcolm IV., William I. Prance—Louis 
VII., Philip II. Germany —Frederick Barbarossa. Popes Adiian IV., 
Alexander III., Lucius HI., Urban III., Gregory VIII., Clement III. 

Richard I.—Eldest surviving son of Henry II. Born September 13, 1157. Crowned 
September 3, 1189. Married Berengaria of Navarre, 1191. Died April 8, 
1199. No legitimate issue. 



630 APPENDIX. 

Cotemporary Soyereigns. — Scotland —William I., the Lion. France Philip II. 

Germany —Frederick Barbarossa, Henry VI., Philip. Popes —Clement III., 
Celestine III., Innocent III. 


John.—Y oungest son of Henry II. Born December 24, 1165. Married Isabel of 
Gloucester, 1189. Divorced, and married Isabel of Angouleme, 1199. Crowned 
May 27. 1199. Died October 19, 1216. Issue: two sons and three daughters. 

Cotemporary Sovereigns. — Scotland —William I., Alexander II. France —Philip 
II. Germany—Philip, Otto IV. Pope— Innocent III. 

Henry III.—Eldest son of John. Bom October 1, 1207. Crowned October 28, 1216. 
Married Eleanor of Provence, 1236. Died November 16, 1272. Issue: two 
sons and two daughters, besides five children who died young. 

Cotemporary Sovereigns. — Scotland —Alexander II., Alexander III. France Philip 
II., Louis VIII., Louis IX., Philip III. Germany— Frederick II., Conrad IV., 
William. Popes— Honorius III., Gregory IX., Celestine IV., Innocent IV., 
Alexander IV., Clement IV., Gregory X. 

Edward I.—Eldest son of Henry III. Bom June 18, 1239. Married Eleanor of Cas¬ 
tile, 1254; Margaret of France, 1299. Proclaimed king November 20,1272. Died 
July 7, 1307. Issue : six sons and ten daughters. 

Cotemporary Sovereigns. — Scotland —John Baliol, Robert (Bruce) I. France 
Philip III., Thilip IV. Germany— Rudolph, Adolphus, Albert. Popes— 
Gregory X., Innocent V., Adrian V., Vicedominus, John XX., Nicholas III., 
Martin IV., Honorius IV., Nicholas IV., Celestine V., Boniface VIII., Bene¬ 
dict XI. 

Edward II.—Eldest surviving son of Edward I. Bom April 25, 1284. Received as 
king July 8, 1307. Married Isabella of France, 1308. Deposed January 7, 
1327. Murdered September 21, 1327. Issue : two sons and two daughters. 

Cotemporary Sovereigns. — Scotland —Robert (Brace) I. France —Philip IV., Louis 
X., John I., Philip V., Charles IV. Germany— Henry VII., Louis IV. 
Popes —Clement V., John XXI. 

Edward III.—Eldest son of Edward II. Born November 13, 1312. Proclaimed king 
January 7, 1327. Married Philippa of Hainault, 1328. Died June 21, 1377. 
Issue: seven sons and five daughters. 

Cotemporary Sovereigns. — Scotland —Robert I., David II., Edward Baliol, Robert 
(Stuart) II. France —Charles IV., Philip VI., John II., Charles V. Ger¬ 
many —Louis IV. and Frederick, Louis IV., Charles IV. Popes —Peter do 
Cobario, Benedict XII., Clement VI., Innocent VI., Urban V., Gregory XI. 

Richard II.—Grandson of Edward III. Bom April 3, 1366. Succeeded to the throne 
June 22, 1377. Married Anne of Bohemia, 1382, and Isabella of France, 1396. 
Deposed September 30, 1399. Date of death unknown. No issue. 

Cotemporary Sovereigns. — Scotland— Robert II., Robert III. France —Charles V., 
Charles VI. Germany —Wenceslaus. Popes —Gregory XI., Urban VI., Cle¬ 
ment VII., Boniface IX., Benedict XIII. 

Henry IV.—Grandson of Edward III. Born 1366. Married Mary de Bohun, 1387, 
and Joan of Navarre, 1403. Called to the throne by Parliament September 
30, 1399. Died March 20, 1413. Issue: fours sons and two daughters. 


APPENDIX. 


631 


Cotemporary Sovereigns.— Scotland —Robert III., James I. France— Charles VI., 
Henry VI. of England till 1436. Germany —Frederick Rupert, Jossus, Sigis- 
mund. Popes —Benedict III., Innocent VII., Gregory XII., Alexander V., 
John XXII. 

Henry V.—Eldest son of Henry IV. Bom August 9, 1388. Succeeded to the throne 
March 21, 1413. Married Catherine of France, 1420. Issue: one son. 

Cotemporary Sovereigns. — Scotland —James I. France —Henry VI. of England till 
1436, Charles VII. Germany —Sigismund. Popes —John XXII., Martin V. 

Henry VI.—Only son of Henry V. Bom December 6, 1421. Proclaimed king Sep¬ 
tember 1,1422. Married Margaret of Anjou, 1445. Deposed March 3, 1461; 
restored October 9, 1470 ; again displaced April, 1471. Date of death unknown. 
Issue: one son. 

Cotemporary Sovereigns. — Scotland —James I., James II., James III. France — 
Charles VII., Louis XI. Germany —Albert II., Frederick III. Popes — 
Martin V., Clement VII., Eugenius IV., Amadeus VIII., Felix V., Nicholas V., 
Calixtus III., Pius II. 

Edward IV.—Eldest surviving son of Richard, Duke of York. Born April 29, 1442. 

Called to the throne by Parliament, March 4, 1461. Married Elizabeth (Wood- 
ville) Grey, 1463. Died April 9, 1483. Issue: three sons and seven daughters. 

Cotemporary Sovereigns. — Scotland —James III. France —Louis XI. Germany — 
Maximilian I. Spain —Ferdinand and Isabella, in whom the crowns of Castile 
and Arragon were united. Popes —Pius II., Paul III., Sixtus IV. 

Edward V. and Richard III.—Edward, eldest son of Edward IV. Bom November 4, 
1470. Proclaimed king April 9, 1483. Nominal reign ended June 22, 1483. 
Date of death unknown. Richard, youngest son of Duke of York. Bom Octo¬ 
ber 21, 1450. Called to the throne by Parliament, June 26, 1483. Married 
Anne of Warwick, 1472. Killed August 22, 1485. Issue: one son, who died 
young. 

Cotemporary Sovereigns. — Scotland —James III. France —Charles VIII. Ger¬ 
many —Maximilian I. Spain —Ferdinand and Isabella. Popes —Sixtus IV., 
Innocent VIII. 

> 

Henry VII.—Only son of Edmund Tudor, Earl of Richmond. Born 1456. Became 
king August 22, 1485. Married Elizabeth of York, 1486. Died April 21, 
1509. Issue : three sons and four daughters. 

Cotemporary Sovereigns. — Scotland —James III., James IV. France —Charles 
VII., Louis XII. Germany.—Maximilian. Spain— Ferdinand II. Popes— 
Innocent VIII., Alexander VI., Pius III., Julius II. 

Henry VIII.— Eldest surviving son of Henry VII. Born June 28, 1491. Came to 
the throne, April 22, 1509. Married Catherine of Arragon, 1509; Anne 
Boleyn, 1532; Jane Seymour, 1536; Anne of Cleves, 1540; Catherine How¬ 
ard, 1540; and Catherine Parr, 1543. Died January 28, 1547. Legitimate is¬ 
sue : one son and two daughters. 

Cotemporary Sovereigns. — Scotland —James IV., JamesV., Mary. France —Louis 
XII., Francis I. Germany— Maximilian, CharlesV. §pain— Ferdinand V., 
Charles V. of Germany. Popes.— Juliuft II., Leo X., Adrian VI., Clement 
VII., Paul III. 


632 


APPENDIX. 


Edward VI. and Mary. —Edward, only surviving son of Henry VIII. Bom Octo¬ 
ber 12, 1537. Crowned January 28, 1547. Died July 6, 1553. Mary, daughter 
of Henry VIII. by Catherine of Arragon. Bom February IS, 1516. Ascended 
the throne July 6, 1553. Married Philip of Spain, 1554. Died without issue, 
November 17, 1558. 

Cotemporary Sovereigns. — Scotland —Mary. France —Henry II. Germany —Charles 
V., and King of Spain. Popes —Paul III., Julius III., Marcellas II., Paul 
IV. 


Elizabeth. —Daughter of Henry VIII. by Anne Boleyn. Born September 7, 1533. 

Crowned November 17, 1558. Died March 24, 1603. Never married. 
Cotemporary Sovereigns. — Scotland —Mary, James VI. France —Francis I., Charles 
IX., Henry III., Henry IV. Spain —Philip II., Philip III. Germany — 

Ferdinand I., Maximilian II., Itudolph II. Popes —Paul IV., Pius IV., Pius 
V., Gregory XIII., Sixtus V., Urban VII., Gregory XIV., Innocent IX., Cle¬ 
ment VIII. 


’ VIES I.—Only son of Mary Queen of Scots. Born June 19, 1566. Married Anne 
of Denmark, 1590. Was James VI. of Scotland when he came to the throne 
of England, March 24,1603. Died March 27, 1625. Issue: two sons and one 
daughter, besides several children who died young. 

Cotemporary Sovereigns. — France —Henry IV., Louis XIII. Germany —Itudolph 
II., Matthias, Ferdinand II. Spain —Philip III., Philip IV. Popes —Cle¬ 
ment VIII., Leo XI., Paul V., Gregory XV., Urban VIII. 


Charles I.—Eldest surviving son of James I. Born November 16, 1600. Succeeded 
to the throne March 27, 1625. Married Henrietta Maria of France, 1625. 
Beheaded January 30, 1649. Issue: three sons and two daughters, besides 
children who died young. 

Cotemporary Sovereigns. — France —Louis XIII., Louis XIV. Germany —Ferdi¬ 

nand II., Ferdinand III. Spain —Philip IV. Popes —Urban VIII., Inno¬ 
cent X. 

Charles II.—Eldest surviving son of Charles I. Born May 29, 1630. Came to the 
throne May, 1600. Married Catherine of Braganza, 1662. Died February 6, 
1685. No legitimate issue. 

Cotemporary Sovereigns. — France —Louis XIV. Germany —Leopold I. Spain — 
Philip IV., Charles II. Popes— Alexander VII., Clement IX., Clement X., 
Innocent XI. 


James II.—Second surviving son of Charles I. Bom October 15, 1633. Married Anne 
Hyde, 1660, and Mary of Modena, 1673. Succeeded to the throne February 
6, 1685. Driven from it December 11, 1688. Died in exile September 6, 1701. 
Issue: one son and two daughters. 

Cotemporary Sovereigns. — France —Louis XIV. Germany —Leopold I. Spain — 

Charles II. Pope —Innocent XI. 


William III. and Mary. —William, Prince of Orange, and grandson of Charles I. Born 
November 4, 1650. Married Mary, daughter of James II., November 4, 1677. 
Called to the throne jointly by a convention, February 13, 1689. Mary died 
December 28, 1694. William died March 8, 1702. No issue. 


APPENDIX. 


633 


Cotemtorary Sovereigns. — France —Louis XIV. Germany— Leopold I. Spain— 
Charles II., Philip V. Russia —Peter the Great. Popes —Alexander VIII., 
Innocent XII., Clement XL 

Anne.— Youngest daughter of James II. Born February 6, 1GG5. Married George of 
Denmark, 1683. Ascended the throne March 8, 1702. Died August 1, 1714. 
Issue: two sons and four daughters, who all died young. 

Cotemporary Sovereigns.— France— Louis XIV. 'Germany— Leopold I., Joseph I., 
Charles VI. Spain —Philip V. Russia —Peter the Great. Prussia— Fred¬ 
erick I., Frederick William. Pope —Clement XI. 

George I.—Great-grandson of James I. Born May 21, 1GG0. Married Sophia Doro¬ 
thea of Zell, 1682. Succeeded to the throne August 1, 1714. Died June 11, 
1727. Issue: one son and one daughter. 

Cotemporary Sovereigns.— France— Louis XIV., Louis XV. Germany— Charles 
VI. Spain —Philip V. Prussia —Frederick William I. Russia —Peter the 
Great; Catherine I. Popes— Clement XI., Innocent XIII., Benedict XIII. 

George II.—Son of George I. Born November 10,1683. Married Caroline of ^ 
spach, 1705. Ascended the throne June 11, 1727. Died October 25, 1760. 
Issue: three sons and five daughters. 

Cotemporary Sovereigns.— France —Louis XV. Spain —Philip V., Ferdinand VI., 
Charles III. Germany— Charles VI., Charles Albert VII., Francis I. Prus¬ 
sia —Frederick William I., Frederick the Great. 

George III.—Grandson of George II. Bom June 4,1738. Succeeded to the throne 
October 25, 1760. Married Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, 1761. Died 
January 9, 1820. Issue : nine sons and six daughters. 

Cotemporary Sovereigns.— France —Louis XV., Louis XVI., Napoleon I., Louis 
XVIII. Spain —Charles III., Charles IV., Ferdinaud VII., Joseph Bonaparte. 
Germany —Francis I., Joseph II., Leopold II., Francis II. Prussia —Fred¬ 
erick II., Frederick William II., Frederick William III. Russia —Elizabeth, 
Peter III., Catherine III., Paul I., Alexander. Popes— Clement XIII., Cle¬ 
ment XIV., Pius VI., Pius VII. 

George IV.—Eldest son of George III. Born August 12, 1762. Married Caroline of 
Brunswick, 1795. Made Regent February 5, 1811, and became king January 
29, 1820. Died June 26, 1830. Issue: one daughter. 

Cotemporary Sovereigns.— France —Louis XVIII., Charles X. Austria —Francis 
I. (Francis II. of Germany). Prussia —Frederick William III. Spain —Ferdi¬ 
nand VII. Russia —Alexander, Nicholas. Popes —Pius VII., Leo XII., Pius 
VIII. 

William IV.—Third son of George III. Born August 21, 1705.* Married Adelaide of 
Saxe-Meiningen, 1818. Became king June 26,1830. Died June 20,1837. Issue: 
two daughters, who died young. 

Cotemporary Sovereigns.— France —Louis Philippe. Austria —Francis I., Ferdi¬ 
nand I. Prussia —Frederick William III. Spam —Ferdinand VII., Maria 
Isabella. Russia —Nicholas. Popes —Pius VIII., Gregory XVI. 

Victoria.—G rand-daughter of George III. Born May 24, 1819. Became queen reg¬ 
nant June 20, 1837. Married Albert of Saxe-Coburg, 1840. Issue: four sons 
and five daughters. 

27 * 


634 


APPENDIX. 


CoTEirroitARY Sovereigns.— France — Louis Philippe, Napoleon III. Austria — Ferdi¬ 
nand, Francis Joseph. Pimssia —Frederick William III., Frederick William 
IV., William I., the latter made Emperor of Germany 1871. Spain —Maria 
Isabella II., Amadeus I. Russia —Nicholas, Alexander II. Italy —Victor 
Emmanuel, King of United Italy, 1870. Popes —Gregory XVI., Pius IX. 
The temporal power of the Popes ended in 1870, when Victor Emmanuel be¬ 
came King of United Italy. 


Just before the Reformation, early in the 16th century, the Pope of Rome, claiming 
to be king of kings, established the following royal table of precedence 


1 . 

King of Rome, heir to German 

8. 

King 

of Scotland. 

2. 

44 

France. [Empire. 

9. 

44 

Hungary. 

3. 

(4 

Castile and Spain. 

10. 

44 

Navarre. 

4. 


Arragon. 

11. 

44 

Cyprus. 

5. 

44 

Portugal. 

12. 

44 

Bohemia. 

6. 

44 

England. 

13. 

44 

Poland. 

7. 

44 

Sicily. 

14. 

44 

Scandinavia. 


II. CHRONOLOGY OF EVENTS IN THE HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 


B.C. 

55. Romans first invade Britain. 

54. Second Roman invasion. 

23. First coin made in Britain. 

A.D. 

43. Third Roman invasion. 

50. Caractacus sent prisoner to Rome. 

59. Suetonius commands in Britain. 

60. Christianity first preached in Bri¬ 

tain. 

61. Boadicea makes war on the Ro¬ 

mans. 

78-84. Agricola subdues Britain. 

117. Insurrection against the Romans. 
120. Emperor Hadrian in Britain. 

197. An Emperor proclaimed in Britain. 
210. Emperor Severus in Britain. 

286. Rebellion and usurpation of Carau- 
sius. 

294. Carausius murdered. 

364-418. Incursions of northern barba¬ 
rians. 

367-383. Revolts in the army in Britain. 
410. Roman rule in Britain ends. 

457. Hengist founds the Kingdom of 
Kent. 

477. Kingdom of Sussex founded. 

519. Kingdom of Wessex founded. 

547. Kingdom of Northumbria founded. 
587. Kingdom of Mercia founded. 


A.D. 

597. Arrival of St. Augustin. 

709. Saxon laws promulgated by Ina. 

787. First arrival of the Danes in Eng¬ 
land. 

800. Egbert chief ruler. 

810-'12. Egbert subdues the Welsh. 

S24. End of the Saxon Heptarchy. 

827. First sole monarch of England. 

853. Tithings granted to the Church. 

871. Alfred the Great enthroned. 

897. Alfred subdues the northern in¬ 
vaders. 

905-924. Struggles with the Norsemen. 

924. Foundations of the British monarchy 
laid. 

927-938. Contests with the Danes, Scotch, 
and Welsh. 

945. Athelstan grants Cumberland to 
Malcolm King of Scotland. 

955. Title “King of Great Britain” first 
used. 

961. Married clergy supplanted by un¬ 
married clergy. 

991. First land-tax levied in England. 
Arithmetic first introduced. 

993-100S. The Norsemen ravage England. 

1006-1013. Sweyn of Denmark ravages 
England and becomes its mon¬ 
arch. 








APPENDIX. 


635 


A. D. 

1013. Canute proclaimed King. 

1042. Accession of Edward the Confes¬ 
sor. 

1051. William, Duke of Normandy, visits 
England. 

1066. William the Norman conquers Eng¬ 
land. 

1068. Tax of Danegelt and ringing of the 

curfew bell re-established. 

1069. The land of England distributed 

among the Normans. 

1070. Feudal system introduced. 

1079. Courts of Chancery and Exchequer 
established. The New Forest 
created. 

1085. Domesday Book completed. 

1087. Accession of William Rufus. 

1088. Rebellion of Bishop Odo. 
lOSO-’O.?. War against the Scotch and 

Welsh. 

1098. Westminster Hall built. 

1100. Accession of Henry I. 

1105. Henry takes Normandy from his 
brother. 

1127. House of Plantagenet founded. 

1135. Stephen usurps the throne. 

1138. War against the Scots. 

1140. Maud makes war on Stephen. 

1141. Maud proclaimed Queen. 

1145. Maud flies to Normandy. 

1148. Stephen crowned at Lincoln. 

1153. Compromise effected. 

1154. Henry Plantagenet crowned Hen¬ 

ry II. 

1157. Henry subdues the Welsh. 

1159. War against France. 

1172. Ireland conquered. 

1185- 87. Henry’s sons rebel. 

1189. Accession of Richard I. 

1190. Richard engages in the Crusades. 
1192. Richard, returning home, is im¬ 
prisoned. 

1194-’98. War between England and 
France. 

1204. English dominion in France broken 
up. 

1207. Monks driven out of England. 

1208. The Pope places England under an 

interdict. 

1209. The Pope excommunicates King 

John. 

1210. The Irish brought under English 

laws. 


A.D. 

1211. The English absolved from alle¬ 
giance. Their King deposed by 
the Pope. 

1213. Degradation of King John. 

1215. Magna Charta wrung from the King. 
1215. Civil War. Accession of Henry II. 
1221. French invaders expelled. 

1223. French declaration of war against 
England. 

1227. Magna Charta cancelled. 

1253. Magna Charta solemnly reaffirmed. 
1258. Parliament assembles at Oxford. 
1262. War between the King and barons. 

1264. The King made prisoner at Lewes. 

1265. Foundation of the British constitu¬ 

tion of government laid. 

1272. Accession of Edward I. 

1282. The Welsh conquered. 

1290. The Jews persecuted and exiled. 
1291-92. Fiery disputes in Scotland re¬ 
ferred to the King. 

1295. War against France and Scotland. 

1296. The King of Scotland made prisoner. 
1299. Wallace leads an insurrection. 

1305. Wallace executed. 

1306. Robert Bruce made King of Scot¬ 

land. 

1307. Accession of Edward II. 

1308. Knights Templars abolished. 

1313. War against Scotland renewed. 

1314. Battle of Bannockburn. 

1318. The Scots defeated in Ireland. 

1322. The Earl of Lancaster defeated. 

1326. England invaded by the English 

Queen-Consort. 

1327. The King imprisoned and murdered. 

Accession of Edward III. 

1333. Baliol crowned King of Scotland. 
1340. King of England assumes the title 
of “ King of France.” 

1346. Battle of Crecy. Battle of Neville’s 

Cross. 

1347. Calais surrenders to the English. 

1348. First Great Plague in London. 

1356. English victory at Poitiers. 

1369. Wickliffe’s tenets first promulgated. 

1376. Death of the Black Prince. 

1377. Accession of Richard II. 

1381. Wat Tyler’s Rebellion. 

1384-’S5. War with France and Scot¬ 
land. 

1399. Rebellion of the Duke of Lancaster. 
Accession of Henry IY. 





636 


APPENDIX. 


A.D. 

1401. Fires of persecution first lighted in 
England. 

1403. Battle of Shrewsbury. 

1405. Insurrection in the North. 

1409. British troopg sent to France. 

1413. Accession of Henry V. 

1414. Slaughter of the Lollards. 

1415. Battle of Agincourt. 

1417. Second capture of Calais. 

1420. King of England heir to the crown 
of France^ 

1422. Accession of Henry VI. Proclaimed 
King of France. 

1429. Siege of Orleans. 

1430. l^urder of the “ Maid of Orleans.” 

1450. Jack Cade’s Rebellion. English 

driven from France. 

1450. Beginning of the “ War of the 
Roses.” 

1459. Earl of Warwick first styled “ The 
King-maker.” 

1400. Battle of Wakefield. 

14G1. Duke of York crowned as Edward 
IV. 

1404. King Henry imprisoned. 

1470. King Henry released by Warwick. 

1474. Printing introduced into England. 

1483. Accession of Richard III. 

14S5. Invasion of England and accession 
of Henry VII. 

1480. LambertSimmell, an impostor, claims 
the crown. 

1487. Court of Star Chamber instituted. 

1493. Perkin Warbeck, an impostor, claims 
the crown. 

1495-’97. Warbeck invades England. 

1499. Warbeck is executed. 

1504. Origin of the royal family of Stu¬ 
art. 

1507. Extoi-tions of the “ Ravening 
Wolves.” 

1509. Accession of Henry VIII. 

1512. Invasion of France. 

1519. Exaltation of Cardinal Wolsey. 

1529. Henry sues for a divorce from Cathe¬ 
rine of Arragon. 

1534. Henry declared to be the supreme 
head of the Church. 

1532-’43. Henry marries five waves and 
murders two of them. 

1540. Unbelievers in the doctrine of tran- 
substantiation burned at the stake. 

1547. Accession of Edward VI. 


A.D. 

1549. Reform of the Church liturgy. 

1552. Sternhold and Hopkins translate the 

Psalms. 

1553. Accession of Mary. 

1554. Church of Rome restored in Eng¬ 

land. Wyatt’s Rebellion. Mary 
marries Fhilip of Spain. Execu¬ 
tion of Lady Jane Grey. 

1558. Calais surrendered to the French. 

Accession of Elizabeth. 

1559. Protestant Church restored. 

1570. Elizabeth excommunicated by the 
Pope. 

1580. Spaniards land in Ireland. 

1584. The Jesuits opposed. Virginia dis¬ 
covered. 

1587. Execution of Mary Queen of Scots 

1588. Spanish Armada destroyed. 

1598. Rebellion in Ireland. 

1001. Trade monopolies and patents abol 
ished. 

1003. Accession of James I. 

1004. James styled “King of Great Brit¬ 

ain,” by union with Scotland. 
1005-’00. The Gunpowder Plot. 

1011. Translation of the Bible published. 
1018. Execution of Sir Walter Raleigh. 
1025. Accession of Charles I. 

1020. The King defies Parliament. 

1027. War against France declared. 

1029. Tonnage and ship-money levied by 
the King. 

1035-’38. Resistance to ship-money levy. 

1039. War against Scotland. 

1040. Invasion of England by the Scots. 

Meeting of the Long Parliament. 

1041. Execution of Strafford. Courts of 

Star Chamber and High Commis¬ 
sion abolished. 

1042. Civil War commences. 

1044. Battle of Marston Moor. 

1045. Battle of Naseby and defeat of the 

royal forces. 

1047. The King surrendered to the Eng¬ 
lish. 

1049. Execution of the King. England 

declared to be a Republic. 

1050. Prince Charles contends for the 

throne. 

1051. Prince Charles invades England. 
1053. Dissolution of the Long Parliament. 

Cromwell made Protector. 

1055. War against Spain. 



APPENDIX. 


037 


A.D. 

1G58. Cromwell dies and his son becomes 
Protector. 

1059. Officers of the army seize the Gov¬ 
ernment. 

1600. Accession of Charles II. 

1002. Religious Uniformity Act passed. 
1665. War against the Hutch. 

1000. Great naval battle with the Dutch. 
1607. England invaded by the Dutch. 
160S. Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle. 

1072. War against Holland. 

1683. Rye-House Plot. 

10S5. Accession of James II. 

1688. William, Prince of Orange, invades 
England. James abdicates. 

1089. Accession of William and Mary. 

1090. Triumph of Protestants in Ireland 

in the battle of the Boyne. 

1692. Massacre of Glencoe. Battle off La 
Hogue. 

1694. Death of Queen Mary. 

1697. Treaty of Ryswick. 

1702. Accession of Queen Anne. War of 

the Spanish Succession. 

1703. Naval victories over the French. 

1704. Battle of Blenheim. Capture of 

Gibraltar. 

1700. Battle of Ramillies. 

1707. Union with Scotland accomplished. 

1708. Battle of Oudenarde. 

1709. Battle of Malplaquet. 

1711. Duke of Marlborough deprived of 

offices. 

1712. Battle of Denain. 

1713. Treaty of Utrecht. 

1714. Accession of George I. 

1715. Rebellion in Scotland. 

1718. Quadruple Alliance formed. 

1721. Explosion of the South-Sea Bub¬ 

ble. 

1722. Suspension of the Habeas Corpus 

Act. 

1725. Treaty of Vienna. 

1727. Accession of George II. 

1732. Silk manufacture in England. 

1733. First cotton-spinning machine in 

England. 

1739. War against Spain declared. 

1740. Anson circumnavigates the globe. 

1741. Carthagena captured. 

1744. War declared against France. 

1745. Rebellion in Scotland. 

1746. Battle of Culloden. 


A.D. 

1747. French fleet defeated. 

1748. Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle. 

1752. “New Style” in the calendar adopted. 

1753. British Museum founded. 

1755. Defeat of Braddock in America. 
1750. War declared against France. 

1757. Beginning of “The Seven Years’ 

War.” 

175S. Threatened invasion of England. 

1759. Battle of Minden. Capture of Que¬ 

bec by the English. 

1760. Conquest of Canada. Accession of 

George III. 

1761. Surrender of Pondicherry to the 

English. 

1762. War against Spain. 

1763. Treaty of Paris. 

1764. An Englishman discovers the true 

longitude. 

1765. American Stamp Act passed. 

1766. Stamp Act repealed. 

1768. Royal Academy of Fine Arts founded. 

1769. Captain Cook circumnavigates the 

globe. 

1770. The “Boston Massacre” occurs. 

1773. Tea destroyed in Boston harbor. 

1774. Troops ordered to Boston. 

1775-83. The American Revolution. 

1780. Defeat of the Spanish fleet. 

1781. Surrender of Cornwallis. 

1782. Irish Parliament declared indepen¬ 

dent. 

1783. Peace with the United States of 

America. 

1785. First power-loom in England. 

1789. Commencement of the French Revo 
lution. 

1793. War begun against France. 

1797. Defeat of Dutch and Spanish fleets. 
179S. Rebellion in Ireland. Naval vic¬ 
tories over the French. 

1799. Important conquests in India. 

1801. Union of Ireland with England. 

1802. Peace with France. 

1803. Renewal of war against France. Brit¬ 

ish conquests in India. 

1805. War against Spain. 

1807. Danish fleet seized by the British. 
1803-T5. Wars against Napoleon. 

1811. Prince of Wales appointed Regent,. 
1812-T5. War against the United States. 
1815. Battle of Waterloo. 

1818. Death of Queen Charlotte. 



G38 


APPENDIX 


A.D. 

1820. Accession of George IV. Cato Street 

Conspiracy. 

1821. Death of Queen Caroline. 

1824. Free-trade measures in Parliament. 

1825. A ruinous commercial panic. 

1827. Battle of Navarino. 

1828. Test and Corporation Acts repealed. 

1829. Itoman Catholic Relief Bill passed. 

1830. Accession of William IV. 

1S32. Parliamentary Reform Bill passed. 

1833. Assembling of the first Reform Par¬ 

liament. 

1834. West Indies Emancipation Bill 

passed. 

1835. Municipal Corporation Bill passed. 

1837. Accession of Victoria. 

1838. Abolition of slavery in all British 

Colonies. Insurrection in Canada. 

1839. Capture of Aden. 

1840. Marriage of the Queen. War against 

China. 

1841. Union of the Canadas. 

1843. Disruption of the Church of Scot¬ 
land. Victories in India. 

1846. Destruction of the Sikh army. Re¬ 
peal of the Corn Laws. 


A. I). 

1848. Revolutions in Europe. 

1849. Subjugation of the Sikhs. Repeal 

of the Navigation Laws. 

1851. Royal Industrial Exhibition. 

1852. Louis Napoleon declared to be Em 

peror of France. 

1853-’55. War in the Crimea. 

1856. Peace with Russia. 

1857. Mutiny of native troops in India. 

1858. East India Company abolished, and 

Fenian League begun. 

1859. The Queen declared Sovereign of 

India. 

1861-’65. Civil War in America. English 
Ministers sympathize with the in¬ 
surgents. 

1865. Claims for spoliation by Americans. 

1867. Dominion of Canada created. 

1868. War against Abyssinia. 

1871. Disendowment and disestablish¬ 
ment of the Irish Church. Joint 
Commission of England and the 
United States make a treaty for 
the settlement of claims for spoli¬ 
ation. 




INDEX. 


A. 

Abyssinia, war against, 608. 

Acre, capture of, 148, 150. 

Acts, Registration, 587; Septennial, 512; 
Test, 468; Conformity, 359 ; Uniformity, 
458. 

Agincourt, battle of, 248, 249. 

Agricola, career of, in Britain, 16. 

Alfred the Great, accession of, 46; reign 
of, 46 to 50. 

Alexander, Tope, aids William of Nor¬ 
mandy, 80. 

Alliance, tripartite, concerning Austria, 
517. 

America, discovery of, 367; military ope¬ 
rations in, 531, 532; Civil War in, 604, 
605; loss of the English by the Civil 
War in, 606. 

American War for Independence, 539 to 
543 ; Civil War, 604. 

Americans make war against Great Britain, 
554, 555. 

Anabaptists, views and fears of, 332. 

Angles, whence came the, 30. 

Anglo-American colonies, power and num¬ 
ber of, 527, 52S; condition of, 535; 
struggle for the rights of, 535 to 543. 

Anglo-Irish, origin of, 141. 

Anlaf, a Norwegian leader, in England and 
Ireland, 53 to 55. 

Anne, Queen, accession of, 490 ; reign of, 
490 to 497. 

Anti-Corn-Law League, 591, 593. 

Ashdown, battle of, 67. 

Argyle, Earl of, expedition and fate of, 470 
to 472. 

Armada, the Invincible, 371, 372. 

Armed neutrality, 540. 

Armies, English and French, assemblage 
of, for the crusades, 147. 


Army, character of the Parliamentary, 423. 
Arteveldt, Jacob van, 208. 

Athelney, isle of, retreat of Alfred at, 46. 
Arthur, King, stories of, 28. 

Ascalon, destruction of, by the English, 150. 
Assembly at Oxford, 68 ; Scottish, 458. 
Assemblies to consider the affair of a 
Becket, 132. 

Austria, Duke of, imprisons Richard I.— 
excommunicated, 152. 

Austrian succession, war about the, 519. 


B. 

Baliol, Edward, King of Scotland, 207. 

John, King of Scotland, 187, 190. 

Baltic, English fleet in, 596, 598. 

Bannockburn, battle of, 200. 

Banner of William of Nor-mandy, 80. 

Barnet, battle of, 270. 

Baronets, how and for what purpose crea¬ 
ted, 397. 

Battle Abbey, 84. 

Bedford, Duke of, Regent of France, 253. 

Belesme in Normandy and England, 107, 
113, 122. 

Belknap, Sir Robert, enforces the first 
poll-tax, 220. 

“Benevolence” levied, 272, 394. 

Bertha, Queen, and Christianity, 34. 

Berwick, 200, 207, 266. 

Becket, Thomas a, career of, 128 to 137; 
shrine of, plundered, 323. 

Biscayans, 211. 

Bishop, the Boy, 237. 

Bishops, British and Roman, at variance, 
36; deprived of their sees, 343, 355. 

Boadicea, Queen, her wrongs and revenges, 
15. 




<540 


INDEX. 


Bonaparte, Napoleon, campaigns of, 548; 
First Consul, 549; deceives English 
statesmen, 550. 

Bonner, Bishop, restores the Latin ser¬ 
vice in the English church, 839. 

Bosworth, battle of, 281. 

Bothwell forces Mary of Scotland to 
marry him, 360. 

Bordeaux, taken by the English, 190. 

Boyne, battle of, effect of the, 484. 

Blackheath, battle of, 303. 

Blenheim, battle of, 492. 

Bloreheath, battle of, 262. 

Braddock, defeat of, 529. 

Bradshaw, John, leader in Parliament, 
436. 

Breda, declaration of, 443. 

Brest, capture of, by English, 219. 

Bretigny, treaty of, 213. 

Britain, divisions of, 21, 23; origin of 
name of, 192. 

British islands, 1, 2; chiefs, position of, 
17; emperor, 19; monarchy, founda¬ 
tion of, 52. 

Britons, defence of, against Saxon in¬ 
vaders, 31. 

Britwalda, a title of honor, 31. 

Bruce, Robert, King of Scotland, career 
of, 191 to 194; Edward, in Ireland, 
Robert III., 194, 195. 

Brunswick, house of, 510. 

Brutus, story of, 191. 

Buckingham, Duke of, chief regent, 223; 
General, 263; Chief-Justice of Wales, 
278; Duke of, 400, 403, 404. 

Burgundy, Duchess of, sends troops to 
Ireland, 298. 

Burley, Sir Simon, insurrection of, 221. 

Burgoyne, effects of surrender of, 542. 

Burmese, war against the, 563. 


C. 

Cabal, origin of, 463. 

Cade, Jack, insurrection of, 259. 

Calais, 210, 247, 250, 256, 260, 261, 350. 
Caledonians, campaign against, 18. 
Caligula, Emperor, conduct of, 13, 14. 
Canada, conquest of, by English, 532; 
insurrection in, 591. 

Canterbury, made the seat of the primate 
of England, 34; persecution by arch¬ 
bishops of, 246. 


Canute, proclaimed King of England, 66; 
after career of, 67 to 70. 

Cape Breton, capture of, 527. 

Caractaeus sent in chains to Rome, 14. 

Carausius, Emperor in Britain, 18. 

Carlisle, events at, 524, 525. 

Caroline, Queen, trial, sufferings, and 
death of, 561. 

Cartismandua, Queen, 13. 

Castles on the borders of Wales, 123. 

Castle-building, 234 ; castle-men, 96. 

Catholics, Roman, emancipation of, 562, 
564; encroach upon the Queen’s pre¬ 
rogative, 594. 

Catus, Decianus, oppresses the Britons, 15. 

Cavalry, Norman, at Hastings, 82. 

Csesar, Claudius, invades Britain, 14. 

Cajsar, Julius, invades Britain, 7, 11, 12. 

Cecil, Sir William, counsellor of Queen 
Elizabeth, 352 to 356. 

Celts, fn the British islands, 3, 4. 

Cerdic, founds Wessex, 31. 

Charioteers, skill of British, 10. 

Charles I., accession of, 408; reign of, 
400 to 427. 

Charles, Prince, proclaimed King, 443; 
in Scotland and England, 430, 431; es¬ 
capes to France, 431; prepares for a 
new invasion, 441; becomes King, 456. 

Charles II., accession of, 456; reign of, 
456 to 468. 

Chartists, origin of, 585. 

Charters for freedom, 221, 222. 

Chepstow, Richard, in Ireland, 139. 

Chevalier, the (“Pretender”), 490 to 513. 

Chevy Chase, ballad of, 225. 

Chivalry, 217, 236. 

Christianity in Great Britain, 20, 33 to 36. 

China, war against, 588, 599, 603. 

Church, the, quarrels with the State. 98; 
treasure of, seized, 100; liberty of, de¬ 
manded, 126; headship of, claimed by 
Henry VIII., 324. 

Cinque Ports, 158; inhabitants of join 
De Montfort, 178; fleet and men of, 
179, 190. 

Civil War, threatened, 157; kindled, 161, 
178, 180. 

Claims for spoliation by Anglo-confeder¬ 
ate cruisers, 607, 608. 

Coinage, first, in England, 13. 

Colonies, European, 497. 

Commission, Court of High, 354; abolish¬ 
ed, 416. 




INDEX. 


041 


Commissions, Scotch, action of, in the 
case of Charles I., 429. 

Commons, origin of House of, 230 ; their 
exclusive control of taxation, 244; mem¬ 
bers of, imprisoned, 416. 

Commonwealth, establishment of the, 428. 

Confessor, Edward the, patron saint of 
England, 78. 

Confiscation of lands, general, 100. 

Conformity, Act of, 359. 

“ Congregation of the Lord,” 35S, 300. 

Constitutional government, efforts for, in 
Europe, 501. 562. 

Continental Congress, American, 538. 

Covenant, the Scotch, 411. 

Cranmer, Thomas, courtier, prelate, and 
martyr, 316 to 349. 

Crecy, battle of, 210. 

Cressingham, Hugh, treasurer of Scot¬ 
land, 190. 

Crimea, war in the, 596 to 599. 

Cromwell, Oliver, career of, 404 to 440; 
Richard, 441, 442; Thomas, implement 
of Henry VIII., 320 to 325. 

Crusades, origin and character of, 111,112. 

Cumberland, Duke of, in Germany, 520 ; 
career of against the Scotch insurgents, 
524, 526 ; helps Frederick the Great 
and loses Hanover, 528. 

Culloden, battle of, 525. 

Curfew bell, origin of the, 101. 

Cymbeline, image of, on coins, 13. 

D. 

Danegelt. tax called, 96. 

Danelagh, ravages in, 51. 

Danes, name for Norsemen, 47. 

Danish fleet seized by the English, 551. 

ships appear in the Humber, 99. 

Dare, Jeanne, “Maid of Orleans,” career 
and sufferings of, 255, 256. 

Darien, trading colony in, 494. 

Darnley, Henry, husband of Mary Queen 
of Scots, 360. 

Debt, national, of Great Britain, 484, 496, 
546, 558. 

De Breaute, leader of King John’s merce¬ 
naries, 161. 

De Burgh, Hubert, regent of England, 172. 

Declaration of Rights, 479, 498. 

Decrees of Napoleon and British Council, 
554. 

Deira, Saxon kingdom of, 23. 


Denmark, in league against the “Con¬ 
queror,” 103. 

Distress in England, 558, 559, 605 ; riots 
because of, 559. 

Divine right of kings to rule, 394, 395, 
399. 

Divorce of Henry VIII., 316,317. 

Domesday Book, 103. 

Dominion, the Old (Virginia), 441. 

Douay, Bible translated in the college at, 
363. 

Douglas, Earl of, regent of Scotland, 207. 

Druids, religion and influence of, 5. 

Dunkirk, capture of, 438. 

Dunstan, Archbishop, career of, 55 to 62. 

Dutch, the, invade England, 462; war with, 
renewed, 463 ; troops of, in England, 
479. 

Dyke, Offa’s, 39. 


E. 

East India Company, formation of, 447. 

East Indies, affairs in, 530. 

Edgecote, battle of, 268. 

Edgehill, battle of, 418. 

Edinburgh, burnt by the English, 224 ; 
captured by the English, 274; burnt, 
331 ; riot in, 517 ; castle besieged, 523. 

Edmund, Ironsides, chosen King of the 
Saxons or English, 67; The Elder, founds 
the British monarchy, 52. 

Edward, The Confessor, accession of, 73; 
reign of, 73 to 78; remains of, enshrined, 
181; The First, accession of, 182; reign 
of, 182 to 195; The Second, accession of, 
196; reign of, 196 to 204; The Third, ac¬ 
cession of, 205; reign of, 205 to 214; The 
Fourth, accession of, 265; reign of, 265 
to 274; The Fifth, accession of, 275; 
murder of, 276; The Sixth, accession of, 
329; reign of, 329 to 336; The Black 
Prince, 211 to 213; Plautagenet, fate of, 
304. 

Edwin of Deira, conversion of to Christi¬ 
anity, 35, 36. 

Elector Palatine, son-in-law of James I., 
396,398. 

Ella, founder of Sussex, 31. 

Elizabeth, Queen, accession of, 352; reign 
of, 352 to 357. 

Emperor, in Britain, 16, 17. 

England, origin of name of, 30. 




642 


INDEX, 


English liberty, origin of, 87. 

Erkenwin founds Essex and Middlesex, 31. 

Ethelbert, first Christian King of Saxon 
blood, 34. 

Ethelburga introduces Christianity among 
the Northumbrians, 35. 

Eustace, of Boulogue, visits England, with 
armed retainers, the result, 75. 

Evesham, battle of, 180. 

Exeter, Duke of, invents the rack for tor¬ 
ture, 258. 

% 

F. 

Factions, Neville and Woodville, 267. 

Fairfax, Sir Thomas, lord genera], 422, 
429, 430. 

Fawkes, Guy, engaged in the gunpowder 
treason, 390. 

Fenians, 606, 607. 

Feudal system, 96, 97, 9S. 

Five Burghs, the, 51. 

Fleet, Alfred’s, 48; British, sent against the 
Norsemen, betrayed, 65 ; of William of 
Normandy, 80 ; English, employed by 
crusaders, 146 to 150 ; number and 
character of the English—the French, 
defeated near Brest, 309 ; the English, 
against the Spanish navy, 370, 371 ; 
the Spanish, for invading England, 370, 
371, 372. 

Flemings, settle on the borders of Wales, 
109 ; in Pembrokeshire, 123, 131; trade 
with, 215. 

Flodden, battle of, 310. 

Fools, feast of, 237. 

Forts, Agricola’s chain of, 16 ; established 
by Ethelfleda, 51; built by William the 
Conqueror, 99. 

France, in connection with English his¬ 
tory, 156, 188, 189, 192, 213, 215, 225, 
243, 246, 247, 250, 302, 309, 311, 349, 481, 
484, 485, 527, 528, 543, 544 ; brilliant mili¬ 
tary career of, 548; at war with Ger¬ 
many, 610. 

Frederick the Great assisted by the Eng¬ 
lish, 528. 

French, the, on the English coast, 250 ; 
acknowledge Henry of England as their 
King, 251 ; invade England, 261 ; suc¬ 
cesses against the English, 485; revolu¬ 
tion, 54G. 


G. 

Galgacus, last champion of the North 
Britons, 16. 

Gauls in Britain, 4. 

George I., accession of, 510; reign of, 510, 
515; The Second, accession of, 516; reign 
of. 516 to 532; The Third, accession of, 
533 ; reign of, 533 to 560; The Fourth, 
accession of, 560; reign of, 560 to 565. 

Geoffrey, of Anjou, founds the house of 
Plantagenet, 124. 

Germany, Emperor of, imprisons Richard 
I. and defies the Pope, 152; Emperor 
of, helps Henry VIII., 309. 

Glencoe, massacre of, 485. 

Gloucester, Duke of, protector of England, 
253 ; Richard, Earl of, becomes King, 
276. 

Godwin, Earl, procures the crown for his 
son Harold, 78. 

Gravelines, battle, of, 350. 

Great Britain, present condition of, 611 ; 
natural features and remarkable events 
of, 618. 

Grey, Lady Jane, becomes Queen of Eng¬ 
land, 336 ; death of, 342. 

Gunhilda, story of, 71. 

Gunpowder treason, or plot, 389, 390. 


. H. 

Halidon Hill, battle of, 207. 

Harfleur, capture of, by the English, 247. 

Hastings, battle of, 81. 

Hawkins, Admiral, author of the slave- 
trade between Africa and America, 361. 

“Heir of France,” a title of Henry V. of 
England, 251. 

Huguenots, the, 358, 373, 374. 

Hiuidred Years’ War, origin of, 207. 

Heptarchy, the Saxon, rise of, 30; end of, 
40. 

Hermit, Peter the, preaches a crusade, 111. 

Hexham, battle of, 266. 

High Commission, Court of, established, 
354; abolished, 416. 

Highlanders, Scotch, invasion of England 
by, 524; defeated at Culloden moor, 525. 

Homildon Hill, battle of, 240. 

Howard, Admiral, commander of the fleet 
against the Spanish Armada, 370. 



INDEX. 


043 


i. 

Ida, founder of Northumbria, 31. 

Impressment of seamen, 553, 554. 

Income of the king, how derived, 164. 

Independents, 423, 459. 

India, English possessions in, 544; the 
British empire in, 600; Sepoys of, and 
their revolt, 600, 602; Victoria Empress 
of, 603. 

Indies, East, affairs in, 591. 

Insurgents, doings of, 221, 222. 

Insurrection, against the Normans, 96; in 
time of Itichard III., 278; in Cornwall, 
303; in favor of monasteries, 321, 322, 
333, 334; Wyatt’s, 341; in Wales, 342; 
known as ‘'rising of the North,” 362; 
in Ireland, 374, 375; against Cromwell, 
438; Booth’s, 442; in Scotland, 462, 467; 
Monmouth’s and Argyle’^ 471; in Scot¬ 
land, 482; Jacobite, 511; in Canada, 
591. 

Interference, English, in the affairs of 
other nations, 563, 587, 588, 592. 

Invasion of Britain by the Romans, 7; by 
the Spaniards, expected, 370 ; expected, 
512, 513, 530. 

Ireland, geography of, 2, 42; scholars and 
monks in, 93; civil war in, 138,141, 363; 
colonized by Protestants, 397 ; civil war 
in, 429; Protestant royalists in, 433; 
affairs in, 460; war in, 483; Protestant 
intolerance in, 545; union of with Eng¬ 
land, 549; disturbances in, 584; agitation 
in, 593 ; distress in, 594. 

Irish Church, disestablishment of, 609; 
Irish Coercion Bill, 585, 586. 

Isabella, Queen, rebels against her husband 
and invades England with foreign troops; 
savage career and character of, 203, 204. 

Isles, Lord of the, 265. 


J. 

Jacobites, 480. 

Jamaica, capture of, 438. 

James I. (Sixth of Scotland), accession of, 
389; reign of, 389, 399; The Second, ac¬ 
cession of, 469 ; reign of, 469 to 479. 
Java, island of, conquered by the English, 
551. 

Jesuits, alleged plot of, 465, 466. 

Jews, massacre of, 144. 


John, accession of, 154; reign of, 154 to 
162. 

Judges of Charles I., how treated, 456,457. 

Jury, trial by, 50. 

K. 

Kent, kingdom of, founded, 30 ; invaded by 
“The Conqueror,” 84. 

King’s evil, supposed cures of, 78. 

Knights first heard of, 98. 

Knights Templars, Order of, suppressed, 
204; of St. John, 326. 

L. 

La Hogue, victory at, 481. 

Lancastrians, 261, 262, 265, 272. 

Laud, William, Archbishop, persecutions 
by, 406; in Scotland, 410; execution of, 
420. 

Laws, Alfred’s, 48, 49; Roman, in Britain, 
24. 

Lawyers, first appearance of, in England, 
231. 

Levellers, 424; treatment of, 439. 

Lewes, battle of, 179. 

Lochiel joins the Young Pretender, 522. 

Lollards, persecutions of, 241, 246. 

London, resists the Norsemen, 65; besieged 
by Canute, 67, 85; walls of, cast down, 
175, 180; citizens of, oppressed, 176; 
king and queen insulted in, 178; insur¬ 
gents in, 221; plagues in, 215, 462. 

Londonderry, siege of, 483. 

Long Parliament, 412. 

Lords, House of, assume government au¬ 
thority, 478; provide for a monarch, 475). 

Louis, of France, invited to rule England, 
161; Prince, driven from England, 171. 

Louis XIV., of France, revokes the Edict 
of Nantes, 474. 

Louis Napoleon in league with Great Bri¬ 
tain against Russia, 596. 

Loyalists, American, 544. 

M. 

Magna Charta wrung from King John, 
160 ; character of, 164; revised and pub¬ 
lished, 171; repeatedly confirmed 175; 
confirmation of demanded, 190. 





644 


INDEX. 


Malcolm, King of Scotland, in England, 
109, 110. 

Miuidubratdus wins Britain to the Romans, 

11 . 

Marchers or borderers, 109; oppressions of, 
185. 

Margaret of Anjou, Queen, career of in 
England, 263 to 268. 

Marlborough, Duke of, career of, 490 to 
496. 

Married clergy, succeeded by the unmar¬ 
ried, 59; restored, 61. 

Marston Moor, battle of, 421. 

Mary, Queen, accession of, 339; reign of, 
339, 352. 

Mary, Queen of William III., death of, 
486. 

Mary Queen of Scots, career of, 358 to 361. 

Massachusetts Bay, colony of, 399. 

Massacre of Norsemen, 64. 

Maud, son of, the first of the Plantagenet 
monarchs, 124; career of, 124 to 129. 

Mechanics at the Welsh court, 89. 

Methven, battle of, 195. 

Militia, origin of, 4S. 

Monarchy, establishment of on a new ba¬ 
sis, 480. 

Monasteries founded by Alfred, 48; by 
Athelstan, 53 ; by Dunstan, 58 ; sinks of 
pollution, 87; suppressed, 318, 321; de¬ 
struction and plunder of, 322, 323 ; cher¬ 
ished by the people, 333. 

Monmouth, Duke of, plots in favor of, 
467 ; his career, 470, 473. 

Montfort, Simon de, bold operations of, 
176 to 180. 

Montrose, Earl of, raises the royal standard 
in Scotland, 421. 

Mortimer’s Cross, battle of, 263. 

Murray, Regent of Scotland, 360, 361. 


N. 

Nantes, edict of, 374; edict of, revoked, 
473. 

Napoleon, the Emperor, threatens Eng¬ 
land, 550. 

Naseby, battle of, 423. 

National debt, 496, 546, 558. 

Navy, the British, 62, 165; the French, 
218, 219. 

Navarino, battle of, 564. 

Nctherlanders, the, 361, 363. 


Neville’s Cross, battle of, 210. 

Newburn, battle of, 412. 

Newbury, battle of, 421. 

New Forest, how formed, 102. 

Nobles, acts and fate of treacherous, 238. 

Nonjurors, origin of, 482. 

“No Popery” riots, 545. 

Norman nobles, property of confiscated, 
122; kings, personal appellations of, 129. 

Normans, fill offices, 73; overrun Wales, 
188; build castles there, 109 ; in Ireland, 
141. 

Normandy, affairs in, 107, 121, 156, 250, 
257. 

Northampton, battle of, 263. 

Norsemen, invade and ravage Britain, 43, 
44, 45, 47, 48, 50, 62, 63 ; settle in Ire¬ 
land, 41. 

Norway, “Maid of,” Queen of Scotland, 
1ST. 

Norwegians, defeated by Harold, 80. 

O. 

Oates, Titus, 465, 468. 

O’Connell, Daniel} agitations of, 562, 593, 
594. 

Offa, last great prince of the heptarchy, 
39. 

Orange, William, Prince of, leader of the 
Protestant league, 470; invited to Eng¬ 
land, 477; goes, and is a successful in¬ 
vader, 478. 

Orleans, siege of, 255; “Maid of,” 255, 
256. 

Ottcrburn, battle of, 224. 

Oxford, University of, founded, 93; tumult 
at, 174; provisions of, 177. 


P. 

Pagan temples destroyed, 36. 

Papal power, dislike and restriction of, 
216, 228; claims and operations of, 229; 
court, taxes paid to by England, 229. 

Patterson, William, founder of the Bank 
of England, 494. 

Parliament, British, prototype of, 179; at 
Winchester and Marlborough, 180. 181; 
royal demands on, 183; action of, against 
Gaveston—appoints a regency, 205; tries 
State prisoners, 235; the “Wonder-work¬ 
ing,” 223, 226; judicial character of, 231; 



INDEX. 


045 


character amt acts of, 238; the “Un¬ 
learned," 241; action concerning the 
Yorkists and Lancastrians,” 208; acts 
against a queen, 278, 280; subserviency 
of, 32S; confiscates church property, 
335; legitimates the title of Queen Eliza¬ 
beth, 354; requests the execution of Mary 
of Scotland, 309; the “Addled,” 394; 
quarrels with King James, 394, 396, 398 ; 
declares the right of free discussion, 396; 
acts of the King against, 397; abolished 
for a season, 407; prepares for war— 
ordinances of, 419; the “ Hump,” 425; 
abolishes monarchy and House of Lords, 
428 ; unpopularity of, and acts, 433, 434, 
435; dissolved by Cromwell, 435; the 
“Barebones,” 436; Cromwell’s, 439; a 
royalist, 443: savages in, 457, 458; at 
Oxford, 466; of William and Mary, 
481; of Scotland proclaims Charles II. 
as King, 429; the “Reformed,” 585. 

Parliaments, triennial, authorized, 486. 

Peace between England and the United 
States, 543. 

Peers, servants of the court made, 122; 
House of, created, 440. 

Peninsular war begun, 552. 

Persecution, the Marian, 346, 347, 348. 

Petition of Bights, 403. 

Philip of Spain, husband of Queen Mary, 
344, 368, 374. 

Phoenicians visit Great Britain, 3. 

Plague in London, 215, 462. 

Plantagenet, first monarch of the house 
of, 124; origin of name of, 129; Edward, 
bad treatment of, 296. 

Plot, Gunpowder, 390, 391; Rye House, 
46S. 

Plots by English exiles, 349. 

Poitiers, battle of, 212. 

Poll-tax, how first imposed, 219. 

Pope of Rome, claims supremacy and infal¬ 
libility, 56; interference of with Magna 
Charta, 161; power of, felt in England, 
163; revenue of, from England, 176; 
supremacy of, denied by Henry VIII., 
318; excommunicates Queen Elizabeth, 
362 ; temporal power of, ends, 610. 

Prerogative, the royal, high claims for, 
394, 395. 

Presbyterians, action of, 456, 459. 

Prestonpans, battle of, 523. 

Pretender (James Francis Edward), to the 
throne, 489; lands in Scotland, 495. The 


Young, in Scotland, 521 to 526; aided by 
France, 524; escapes to France, 526. 

Pride's Purge, 425. 

Protectorate, the, 437. 

Protestant worship prohibited, 344; States, 
leagues of, 470; refugees in England, 
473. 

Puritans, origin of the name of, 357; war 
of, in the Anglican Church, 365; advo¬ 
cate separation of Church and State, 
366 ; proceedings against, 366, 367 ; lack 
of patriotism, 370 ; ascendency of, in Par¬ 
liament, 391; persecuted, flee to Hol¬ 
land—found a colony in America, 391; 
republicans, 411. 


Q. 

Quadruple alliance, 588. 


R. 

Radicals, rise of, 559. 

Raleigh, Sir Walter, schemes of, 367, 368, 
389, 395. 

“ Ravening Wolves ” of Henry VII., 306. 

Reform Bill, incidents connected with the, 
584. 

Reformation, English, 330. 

Regency, Council of, in Scotland, depose 
Baliol, 190. 

Regent, Prince George appointed, 553. 

Revolutionary spirit prevails, 561, 562, 583, 
590, 594. 

Revolts of the Roman army and navy, IS, 
19. 

Richard I., accession of, 144; reign and 
career of, 144 to 154. 

Richard II., accession of, 217; reign of, 
217 to 228. 

Richard III., accession of, 277; reign of, 
277 to 282. 

Richmond, Earl of, aspires to the throne, 
280 ; invades England, 281. 

Romans invade Britain, 7 to 16; rale of, 
17; abandon Britain, 19; allegiance to 
ended, 19. 

“Root and Branch” faction, 412, 415. 

Roses, War of the, 245, 260, 262. 

Rowena, story of, 28. 

Royal families of England and cotemporary 
sovereigns, 629. 




646 


INDEX. 


Royalists, sufferings of, 459. 
Russia, .war with, 596. 

Rye House plot, 468. 
Ryswiek, treaty of, 486. 


S. 

Safety, Committee of, 442. 

St. Bartholomew’s eve, 365. 

St. John, Order of the Knights of, dissolved, 
326. 

St. Quentin, battle of, 349. 

Saladin, leader of the Saracens, 142, 150, 
151, 152. 

Saxon era, the, 27. 

Saxons, the, in Britain, 29, 30; at Hast¬ 
ings, 81, 82, 83; join William' Rufus, 
106. 

Scandinavian sea-kings, 27. 

Seilly Isles, conquest of the, 54. 

Scotland, tribes in Highlands of, 24; expe¬ 
ditions against, 53, 76, 102, 202, 32S; a 
dependency of England, 186; claimants 
for the crown of, 187; affairs in, 207, 
213. 265, 274, 2S4 to 288, 328, 359. 

Scots, 19; invade England, 102, 200, 207, 
210, 224, 310, 327; betray and sell King 
Charles, 423. 

Scots, Mary, Queen of, pretensions of, to 
the crown of England, 358; career of, 
358 to 361. 

Scriptures, the, translated by Wickliffe, 
230. 

Seminaries established by English Roman¬ 
ists, 363. 

Seminarists in England, 363, 364. 

Severas, wall of, IS, 19. 

“ Ship-money,” 407, 408. 

Shrewsbury, battle of, 241; royal army col¬ 
lected at, 418. 

Simmel, Lambert, pretender to the English 
throne, 297, 298. 

Slaves, traffic in, 8S, 92. 

Slavery, abolition of, 586. 

Sluys, naval battle at, 209; naval battle 
near, 225. 

Society, before the Saxon invasion, 24; 
during the Saxon era, 85; during the 
Norman and early Plantagenet period, 
162; from the year 1200 to 1400, 228; 
during the rule of the later Plantagenets, 
2S8; in the time of the Tudors, 377; 
during the first half of the 17th century, 


444; during the later rule of the Stuarts, 
498; during the reigns of the furo 
Georges, 565. 

South-Sea scheme, 513, 514. 

Spain, war against, 396 ; marriage treaty 
with, 398; partition of monarchy of pro¬ 
posed, 488; war against, 493, 516, 518, 
519, 534. 

Spanish intrigues in Ireland and opera¬ 
tions on the coast, 374. 

Stamp Act, American, 536. 

Star Chamber, Court of, 297, 314, 416. 

Statutes, how recorded, 230; against the 
Church of Rome swept away, 345 ; of 
Mary, repealed, 354. 

Stephen, usurps the throne, 125 ; reign of, 
125 to 129. 

Stirling Castle, operations at, 191,192, 193, 
200, 525. 

Stoke-upon-Trent, battle of, 298. 

Stuart, Arabella, 3S9, 395, 396. 

Stuarts, the, 388. 

Suetonius overruns a part of Anglesey, 
15. 

Sweyn, a Norwegian King, in England, 63 
to 75. 


T. 

Taxation, opposed, 536, 537. 

Taxes, 103, 123 ; riots caused by, 517. 

Tea, destruction of at Boston, 538. 

Test Act, repealed, 468. 

Torbay, William of Orange lands at, 47S. 
Toulon, battle at, 521. 

Towton, battle at, 264. 

Trafalgar, naval battle of, 550. 

Tribute, imposed on the Britons, 12, 13 ; 
on Kings of North Wales, 53 ; to the 
Norsemen, 63, 05 ; levied on the lands, 
69; to the Pope, 174. 

Tudors and Stuarts, time of the, 50S. 
Tyler, Watt, insurrection of, 220, 222. 

U. 

Uniformity, Act of, 458. 

Union of England and Scotland, 494, 495; 

of Ireland with England, 549. 

“ United Irishmen,” insurrection of, 549. 
Universities of Oxford, Cambridge, and 
Paris, 234. 

Utrecht, treaty of, 496. 




INDEX. 


647 


v. 

Valhalla, the Scandinavian, 8G. 

Vernon, Admiral, 517, 518. 

Victoria, Queen, accession of, 500 ; mar¬ 
riage of, 592; reign of, 590 to 018. 
Virginia, colony of, 392. 

Volusenus explores the British coast, S. 
Vortigern, story of, 28. 


W. 

"Wakefield, battle of, 2G3. 

Wales, subdued by William the Conqueror, 

102 . 

Walls of Agricola and Hadrian, 17 ; Ho¬ 
man, 24. 

Wallace, William, invades England, 191 ; 
career and character of, 193. 

War, between England and the United 
States, 554 to 55G ; of England against 
the Chinese, 588, 589 ; in the Crimea, 
59G to 599 ; against Abyssina, 008. 

Warbeck. Perkins, pretender to the throne, 
301 to 304. 

Warwick, Earl of, the “King-Maker,” 
259. 

Waterloo, battle of, 558. 

Welsh, the, resist the Norman invaders 
and plunder England, 109 ; hated by 
Normans, 123; starved in dungeons, 


157 ; repel their English oppressors— 
are subdued, 184 ; in arms, 189, 200 ; 
form an alliance with the Scotch, 200 ; 
struggle for independence, 239; final 
submission, 243. 

Westminster Abbey, original building of, 
77. 

Wickliffe, John, 216, 229, 230. 

William I., of Normandy, invades Eng¬ 
land, 80 ; becomes king, 85 ; reign of, 
85 to 105; The Second (Rufus), acces¬ 
sion of, 105; reign of, 105 to 115; The 
Third, accession of, 480; reign of, 480 to 
489; William and Mary, accession of, 
4S0; reign of, 480 to 487; The Fourth, 
accession of, 582; reign of, 582 to 589. 

Witenagemote, the Saxon parliament, 84, 
85, 88. 

Worcester, battle of, 431. 

Wyatt, Sir Thomas, insurrection of, 341, 
342. 

Y. 

Yeomanry, English, origin of, 301. 

York, town of, seized by Norsemen, 51 ; 
Normans massacred at, 99. 

York, Duke of, succeeds Bedford in France, 
25G ; made Protector, 260, 2G1. 

Yorkists, adherents of the family of the 
Duke of York, struggling for the crown, 
261, 262, 263, 279, 296, 297, 299. 


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